Across Dimensions
by ultrasoul
Summary: An alternate James Potter and Sirius Black stumble upon the HP world we know, how will they react? Meanwhile, Voldemort has plans for Harry's fifth year.
1. Default Chapter

**Across Dimensions** (don't ask me why I chose this title, it relates to what I'm gonna write, but I wouldn't call it creative)

Hi everyone!  This is my first attempt at a fanfic, which I may or may not complete depending on the amount of time this takes up and the amount of time study takes up.  I already know mostly what I want to happen in this story, I just need the time (and brain power ^_^) to type it out and fill in the details, and hopefully add some humour, which is something I tend to lack in a lot of my writing at school.  After reading millions (well, not quite, but quite a few anyway), I've begun to have fantasies of my own fic.  So far, I haven't read anything like what I will attempt to write, so if anyone reckons I copied from someone, I'd like to say beforehand that I'm sorry, I truly did not know someone had the same idea as me.  But should that matter?  We're all writing for fun here anyway, not for profit.  Oh my, my fingers are starting to think for me!  Anyway, hope people enjoy!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to JKR, Warner Bros., all those book publishers etc.  Anything you don't recognize belongs to me (the plot, hopefully ^_^).

Chapter one

~*~

As the saying goes, 'where there's a will, there's a way'.  Once an idea was in someone's head, that particular someone (or somebodies), that idea was usually stuck with them until they went through with it.  For example, while attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the teachers could not contain several students, these students were known as the Marauders.  The walls of Hogwarts were not enough to contain the Marauders, and even the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest were not enough to contain them.  It would seem that the boundaries of a world are not enough for one James Potter and his faithful sidekick Sirius Black, and in this tale, their explorations and exploits just had to extend to worlds outside of their own.

It was on a cloudy Sunday afternoon that a little brown poodle began sniffing the ground, seeming to follow an invisible trial.  It's tail wagged and it bit and began to pull on what seemed to be an invisible person, which was what it really was doing.

"Look at what you've done!"  The voice was irritated.

"What have I done!?  The dog just wants to play a bit!"

"Well, the dog wouldn't have followed us if it hadn't smelled that you had the essence of a dog around you too.  Maybe if you transformed, it may even wanna mate."  

"Prongs, that is sick!"  Sirius made a face at James under the cloak.  Sirius was an animagus, with the ability to change into a great black dog at will, "go away, doggie.  Be a good doggie and go play somewhere else!"  Sirius' voice was desperate.

The dog cocked it's head to the side, and let go of the cloak momentarily.  It then turned to it's side and began to lift it's hind leg.  Sirius, seeing this, quickly changed into the big black dog and let out an angry growl, which had the expected and pleasing result of the little dog skittering away.  Sirius resumed his human form.

"Why are we under your cloak in the first place?"  Sirius asked.

"Well, we can't be too sure who we'd meet once we get here, not to mention how people would react to people appearing out of nowhere, and it's easier to explore without people knowing you're there."

"Where are we anyway?  Looks like a muggle neighbourhood."

"Yeah, it actually looks normal, as though Voldermort and Death Eaters never existed.  I wonder what our counterparts are in this world?"  James looked around wonderously at what seemed to be a perfectly normal neighbourhood, no signs of Death Eater activity, no dead people everywhere.  Although where they came from it wasn't exactly a war ground, but a lot of places were still recovering, and Voldemort's Death Eaters still roamed once in a while.

"I dunno Prongs, maybe Lily isn't married to you in this world, maybe professor McGonagall is!"  Sirius joked.

"Padfoot, _that_ is sick!  Maybe you're best friends with Snape!"  Sirius felt like throwing up at that.

"No way!  Maybe you're a professor at Hogwarts!"

"Me?  Teach?  What, is a lesson in 'one hundred and one ways to pull a prank on Snape' actually gonna take place?"

"Possibly, we never know, this world could be very different from ours."

James and Sirius continued walking down the street.  They had not yet seen any of the magical world, but they were still listing off all the possibilities of what this world was like.

"Well, maybe here you're the minister of magic!"  James laughed.

Sirius couldn't help laughing at that, "yeah, and you're a Death Eater and I am on your tail, trying to catch you!"

"Hey, if I'm gonna be a Death Eater here, then you're not gonna be the good guy.  Maybe you're a convicted murderer… for killing a bunch of muggles!"

"Prongs, maybe here, you're dead!"  (AN: sorry, couldn't help that!)

James and Sirius continued to walk down the familiar street with the neatly lined hedges and newly cut lawns.  '_Doesn't Petunia live in this area?_' James was thinking to himself, and he voiced his thoughts to Sirius.

"I wouldn't know, I'm not exactly a fan of hers.  Hey, if she lives near here, how about we go and hex her, give her a little scare?"  The excitement in Sirius' voice was unquestionable.  The last time Sirius had met the woman was at James and Lily's wedding.  Petunia didn't even seem to want to be there, and took every opportunity possible to express those feelings and make snide comments about how awful it was that an Evans was to be married off to the abnormality known as the magical community.  Sirius had not been happy, and had hexed the bowl of punch to follow her around, slightly tipped as though it was about to pour on top of Petunia.  Remus had seen it and unhexed it from it's position, which made the punch land on Dumbledore, who had licked his face and laughed at the flavour the punch had when it had contact with his beard.  Dumbledore simply flicked his wand to clean himself and asked Sirius to not threaten Lily's sister in that manner again, to which of course Sirius ignored and next hexed a cream puff to follow her around.

The neat lawns and houses _did shout out to be vandalised, "okay, let's see how we can redecorate my sister-in-law's not-so-imaginative lawn!"  Completely forgetting their game of 'list the possible differences between this world and ours', they began a new game of 'what colour grass would go with an orange house with fluorescent curtains?'_

~*~

Two weeks into the holidays, all the laundry was hanging out, drying in the wind.  The cloudy day didn't help the drying process a lot, but at least it wasn't raining.  Harry was crouched in the front yard, pulling out some particularly stubborn weeds.  His black hair was plastered to his forehead with his sweat, and he had to occasionally clean his glasses of the sweat and dirt they seemed to constantly accumulate.

Harry had been glad that he did not receive a beating for the prank that the Weasley twins had pulled on Dudley.  In fact, his uncle did not even lift a finger.  However, the Dursley's did not totally forgive him for bringing all that trouble into their home.  All the chores were to be done by him, all the cooking, all the cleaning, lawnmowing, laundry, and he only had a small portion of food everyday, even less than what Dudley ate for his diet.  After a week of slave labour, Harry had begun to feel tired easily.  Even though it was summer, the nights were cool and Harry had nothing but thin sheets to cover his slim body with.  Combining the cool nights, the amount of food he ate, and the amount of work he did, it was quite possible he had begun to get sick.

Throwing the defeated weed onto the little hill he had produced, he tried to ignore the slight dizziness and the occassional stings of his lightning bolt scar.  He tried not to think about the amount of catchup work that he would have to do when he returned to Hogwarts without any homework done, tried not to think about Hedwig locked in her cage and the letters from his friends that his uncle had intercepted and burnt in the fire, usually while Harry was cooking so that he could be satisfied by Harry's shocked expression, another way of avenging the ton tongue toffee incident.

Harry noticed that no matter how many weeds he pulled out, there almost seemed to be more, as though someone had cast a charm to have never-ending weeds growing.  He looked at the ugly green leaves of the weed, and noticed how beautiful the flowers atop them were.  It seemed as though life must be lived with a mixture of good and bad, but Harry could list more bad in his life than good.  The beautiful flowers in his life were only his friends, his godfather, the walls of Hogwarts, and anything that related to the memories of his parents, like the photoalbum and his father's invisibility cloak.  However, he felt the ugly part of his life by far outweighed the beauty, including his life at the Dursleys (which had been ten years, compared to four at Hogwarts, not to mention his holidays were spent at the Dursleys as well), and Voldemort.  Voldemort, who had tried to kill him when he was a baby, who had haunted his dreams for years, who had returned to his body at the end of last year.  And there was Cedric, who Voldemort had killed.  It was his fault that Cedric was dead, it was his fault that Voldemort was returned to his old body.  And not for the first time in his life, he told himself that it was also his fault that his friends were in constant danger because of him, and that it was his fault that his parents were dead.

The thought made him feel slightly nauseous, and he stood up abrubtly.  That action brought on a wave of dizziness, and Harry couldn't stop the little food in him from coming out of his mouth.  He threw up in the bushes, hoping foolishly that none of his relatives saw him do this, and hoping he had enough energy to finish the job and get into bed for a much needed sleep.

While Harry had a hand on the fence and was breathing heavily, he heard a thump and then footsteps coming from his side and turned around, frightened that it was Aunt Petunia out to get him for ruining her bush, without realizing that Aunt Petunia would have come from the house, not from the front fence.  His eyes widened when he saw his godfather moving towards him, a worried look on his face.

"Sirius!  What are you doing here!?  You could get caught!"  Harry exclaimed in a soft voice, hoping none of the Dursley's inside would hear him.  Although he was scared for Sirius' safety, inside he was also happy that Sirius cared enough to come and look for him.  Sirius looked a lot healthier than at the end of the fourth year, his hair in a neat ponytail, his robes clean, and his face looked younger too.

"Harry, what are _you_ doing here?  What are you talking about?"

Looking confused, Harry frowned, "Sirius…" he didn't finish what he had to say as he saw another person come up behind Sirius.  The person had messy black hair and the glasses, the symbols of a Potter.

"Dad?"

_Stupid Harry!  Dad's dead!  That must mean that this man is… _"Death Eater!"  Harry exclaimed, taking a step back and stumbling.  His tired body decided that the shock upon his system meant that his mind needed to rest, and with that, Harry fainted onto the weeds he had piled up.

~*~

AN: There you have it, chapter one!  Was that too short?  Sorry there wasn't any action or excitement, and style's probably not very good.  I hardly ever reread what I write, so if there are any grammatical and spelling mistakes, they are most likely a slip of the finger (or slip of my mind), I apologise.  If my mistakes really annoy you, then let me know and I'll change them ^_^.  No doubt if I reread it, I wouldn't be very pleased with how my ideas turned out, as I am very much a critic.  If you have any pointers on how I can improve my writing, please let me know by email or review.  Seeya next time!


	2. chapter 2

Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognize belongs to me.  Namely, the plot, and Helga's Hole.

AN:  Wow, I'm shocked that I actually got reviews!  Now I'm kinda afraid that I'd disappoint people if this story doesn't turn out as interesting people seem to think it may.  I'm not a fan of new characters and places, but in this chapter it was kind of necessary to have the new place.  We don't know what Lupin's place is like either, so I just kinda made it up as I went along!

Thanks to all reviews!  As I have some time on my hands, I'll reply to the reviews (in order posted):

Melissa: As you showed so much manners in your review, I have updated a little sooner than I was originally gonna.  Hope you like it!

Jeswin: Yeah, Sirius and James are from the same time but different worlds, if you get what I mean.  I tried to portray them as I thought they would be if James was still alive, which I imagined they'd be quite like their teenaged selves.  I imagine that if James were alive then they'd still be jokesters/pranksters, while at the same time, slightly more mature, if you get what I mean.  ^_^

Lady Foxfire: I am kind of afraid of what I'm going to do with my idea, as it might not turn out exactly the way I planned.  I mean, it's similar to writing an English essay, you plan the beginning, middle, and end, but it never turns out that way anyway!  (Well, for me it didn't! ^_^)

Spacecatdet: You'll see in the next few chapters how they made it to the alternate world, you'll just have to wait a little longer!  ^_^

Harriet potter: I'm really really really (really x's a few hundred) flattered that you like it so far!  Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you!

Kateydidnt: you don't need to hope that I'll continue, I intend to!  ^_^  hope you like it.

Usako3000: are you still writing your alternate world fic?  Last time I checked I don't think you updated.  Thanx for the review!

Lils: thank you for the review, hope you like my update!

Ice: thank you for the review!  I'll email you straight after I post this!

Little House Girl: I don't think I made it really clear if they time traveled or entered a different universe, it explains itself a lot more in the coming chapters, but no they didn't time travel.  They came to a different universe, and no they aren't the same thing.  ^_^

Kari Kamiya: thank you for the review.  You do realize as I get more comments like yours my face grows redder and my head grows bigger?  ^_^

LitterEar BigEar's sis: here's the next chapter!  I hope I don't disappoint you!

Me ^.^: thanx for the review and the pointer!  I had a look at chapter one again and realize I DID repeat myself a bit!  The thing is, I don't have that good a vocabulary so I tend to use the same words to describe the same thing all the time, I think it's about time I consulted my thesaurus!  ^^

Shattered Dreams: after this chapter I wonder if you'll still think this is good.  Hope I don't disappoint, and thanx for the review!

Sen: Just because you showed manners and said 'please' I'll continue ^_^ hope you enjoy!

Chapter two

~*~

The two pranksters had reached the lovely lawns of Number 4 Privet Drive.  They fingered their wands excitedly, itching to splatter the windows with magical mud and changing the grass from green to purple, when they both noticed the movement out of the corners of their eyes at the same time.

Both men turned to look at the figure, a small boy crouched down beside a pile of weeds.  Sweat wetted his overlarge shirt, but it wasn't this that caught both mens' eyes.  It was the messy black hair, it looked familiar.  Without speaking, they both moved closer to look at the busy worker, still keeping to the sidewalk as they neared the other side of the yard, and was astonished to see the side of the boys' face.  It was a face they both knew, the familiar-shaped nose, the cheekbone, and the glasses.  It was Harry!

"What is Harry doing here?"  James breathed out, only loud enough for Sirius to hear.

"Dunno, reckon we should ask?"  Sirius looked as though he would ask anyway regardless of James' answer to his question.

Just as James was about to answer, Harry stood up quickly.  He seemed to sway on his feet for a little, and, to their surprise, Harry threw up into some bushes.  Sirius was the first to react, running from beneath the cloak, jumping over the fence and then walking steadily towards this world's version of his godson.  James had been slightly slower, and got tangled in the cloak, and tripped over the fence.

"Sirius!  What are you doing here!?  You could get caught!"  

_Get caught?_  Sirius wondered, "Harry, what are _you doing here?  What are you talking about?"  At that Harry frowned and began, "Sirius…"_

That was when James finally untangled himself and ran to Sirius' side, and looking concerned, began to move towards Harry.

"Dad?"  Harry's voice was uncertain, and James was surprised.  _What sort of relationship did I have with my son in this world?_

"Death Eater!"  The exclamation surprised him.  Sirius looked quickly at James.  _Was James a Death Eater in this world?  James and Sirius had no more time to figure out the meaning behind the accusation when Harry promptly fainted into his pile of weeds.  Both men moved forward quickly, James holding Harry by his shoulders, shaking him and calling his name, and Sirius, taking in Harry's sweat covered face and quick breathing, pressed the back of his hand to Harry's head.  Both of them glimsped the scar, but it was not important at that moment._

"James, I think he's sick…" at that moment, the front door opened, and Petunia stormed towards the trio.

"Boy!  Don't be lazy!  Get back to work!  I'm sorry, gentlemen, the boy is a lot of trouble.  Just leave him alone for a bit and he'll be fine."  Petunia obviously hadn't seen the faces of the men for her to be speaking to them like that.  Both men stood up, James holding Harry in his arms.  As Petunia got closer, she took in the robes that the men were wearing, and noticed that these people looked familiar…

Petunia took a sharp intake of breath, "James Potter!  Sirius Black!  You MURDERER, WHAT DO YOU FREAKS WANT?"  Petunia shrieked.

Sirius had always been short tempered.  However, at that statement and seeing the state his son (well, in this world he'd be the equal of his son) was in, James could hardly control his anger either, "What do WE want?  What have you done to my son!?  Why is he sick!?"

The mixture of fear, anger, and stubborness on Petunia's face would have been comical in any other situation, and Sirius wished he had a muggle camera on him so that he could take a photo that won't move.  Her mouth was agape, and she was about to say something when Vernon, taking in the situation from the lounge window, waddled to her side, Dudley not far behind him, "What are you FREAKS doing here?  Come here to take that no-good boy away?  I will not allow any of your abnormality here, I am doing what's best for that boy!"  He obviously hadn't recognized who these "freaks" were.

Without his arms full of a teenage boy, Sirius was able to whip his wand out and point it at Vernon, a well-selected hex on his lips, "DURSLEY!  There is NO WAY I will allow my godson to be treated like that, you will regret that…" the two Dursley's froze, looks of shock on their faces, to Sirius' slight amusement.

"Don't… Sirius, don't," Harry had momentarily woken up, hearing the voice of his godfather, a voice he had only heard several times yet could not forget the affection that it provided, "please, Sirius, don't do anything to them."

Both men looked at the small boy in James' arms.  From what they could tell, these people had mistreated him, and he did not wish them to be punished?  Seeing the boy so weak, James quickly attempted to control his rage, "Sirius, we can get them later, Harry needs to be taken care of first.  Helga's Hole?"  _Not to mention we'd get him in trouble if we used magic while he was here._

Sirius nodded, both men glared one last time at the Dursleys before James threw the cloak over themselves, creating the illusion of having disappeared, and attempted to apparate themselves to the Hole.  However, their attempt was futile, and when both men opened their eyes, they realized they were still in the Dursley's front yard.

"Why are there apparition wards around a muggle house?"  Sirius looked up and down the street to see if any ministry wizards were coming yet.

"Dunno, but whatever it's there for the caster must know someone has tried to apparate…"

"And we need to get out of here fast, in case we aren't welcome in this world.  It's difficult to move together quickly under the cloak, I'll go to the Hole first."  With that, Sirius transformed into a great black dog and ran down the street, hoping that once he was out of the neighbourhood he could apparate to their hideout.  With a light load in his arms, James began running as well, trying as best to keep the cloak on while he moved, and once he was a few blocks away he apparated to their hideout.

~*~

Helga's Hole was an underground hideout, created over a thousand years ago by Helga Hufflepuff after a foreboding of a coming war between the light and dark.  It was quite a big underground area, equipped with everying from almost a hundred bedrooms, to a store of food fit to feed an army and charmed to last forever (of course, it's not gonna last in your stomachs forever!).  The hole had it's own medical ward, and artificial sources of light.  Located underground stretching from Hogsmead to Hogwarts, it was a place known only to Helga's direct descendants.  However, after a terrible accident, her last descendant lost that part of her memory, and the place was then known to no one.  That was, until Sirius and James had stumbled upon that place after they had graduated and was on their way to visit the eccentric headmaster to return a treasure they had found, and they only did so because in their possession was a Hufflepuff family treasure.  While they explored the hole, the two young men had found scrolls which described the means of getting in and out of the hole via apparating and secret entrances, and the purpose of such a place.  The two of them had agreed that this was their own little secret and that they would share it with no one else.  Not out of greed, but out of the possibility that one of their friends was a spy or would let the secret of the place slip. 

So they were both able to apparate into the hole, regardless of the apparition wards, because they accompanied their spell with the password, "Heiwa", which, unknown to almost everyone, was Helga's middlename, derived from her father's interest in Japanese magic, and which meant "peace".

Sirius had quickly conjured some water from the stores and cast heating charms on the first bed in the medcal ward as soon as he apparated into the Hole.  Several minutes later, James apparated in and ran straight to the medical ward, where he quickly put Harry in bedand used the prepared wet towel to wet his face.  Harry was red in the face, and his breathing was uneven.  Sirius held out some potions, and James held Harry up as Sirius poured them into his mouth.  The potions seemed to have an affect as Harry's breathing evened out a little.

Both men looked down at him, "there's nothing more we can do now," James spoke quietly.

Sirius nodded, "do you think he'll wake up soon?"  James just shrugged.  "Man, he looks so small and thin, I wonder how long he's been with the Dursleys?"

James eyes flickered at the name, "whatever reason he was there for, I'm gonna find out.  Sirius, you stay here and look after Harry."  James looked at Sirius and saw the protest that was on his lips, "you saw how Harry reacted to me.  If he woke up and saw me, I don't think he'd feel very safe.  He seemed to care about this world's Sirius though."

"How are you gonna get information on what's different in this world?  You can look at the library, but where would you look from?  Maybe the history is the same, but maybe somewhere in recent history our world's differed, but from when?  From what he says though, if you're a Death Eater in this world, are you just gonna go prancing around for the ministry to catch you?  And I don't think the wizards would appreciate a Death Eater questioning them about your identity."

Staring at Harry, James thought for a while, then he came up with an idea, "maybe you could transfigure my nose and mouth a bit, and change my eye and hair colour.  I could go and talk to some of our friends."

This got Sirius thinking, "yeah, maybe you'll have to talk to Moony.  What are you gonna do, pretend to be a reporter and ask him about his friends?"

James grinned, "that's just what I had in mind…"

~*~

He had mouse-coloured brown hair, slicked back neatly with gel.  His eyes were a gentle blue, and his oval shaped glasses rested on his long thin nose.  His mouth was petite, almost feminine, and his overall face wasn't too bad looking.  However, Sirius insisted on having "Jupiter Filch" on his name-card, in memory of their most prankable professor and long-time enemy.

Standing in front of the cottage door, James noticed that the house looked exactly the same, however, the lawn needed more working on compared to the lawn he knew.  He prepared his introduction in his head and ran over it several times before bringing his hand up to knock on the door.

Hearing some footsteps, James changed his stance and was ready to attack his friend with a handshake, a smile, and the slight push to suggest that he wanted to move in to have a seat.  And he did just that as Remus Lupin opened the door.

"Hi, my name is Jupiter Filch, Daily Prophet reporter.  You must be Mr. Remus Lupin?" shake of hand, tentative smile, show of his name card, a little push, "I am doing a column on magical creatures, and I have heard of a lot of approachable dark creatures as well, so I thought it'd be interesting to do an article on the lives that dark creatures lead when they are in their human form with human thoughts and are just normal like the rest of us.  I have heard a great deal about you, all of it good, I assure you, would you mind if I interviewed you for a while?"

James could tell he hit the right spot; being a werewolf and always picked on, Remus could be insufferably polite.  Also, not many people spoke outwardly to a werewolf like that, admitting that they knew werewolfs were normal twenty something or other days a month.  He cheered himself on his small victory as Remus stepped aside and let him in.  Well, the man could afford to let strangers into his home, he was a lot stronger than ordinary people because of the werewolf in him, and he wasn't afraid that strangers had silver on them as Remus could sense silver on people if they were close enough.

James was led through the familiar hallway to the kitchen where he seated himself on the chair at the dining table as Remus went off to make some tea.  He looked around the place, and there was a noticable difference between this house and the one he knew back in his world.  For one, there weren't as many photos and portraits hanging on the walls of the Marauders and the Potter family.  James remembered that in his world, Remus had kept a picture of the four marauders, to Sirius' disgust.  He had insisted that Peter was a different person before he became dark, and was truly a friend in the old times.  When Remus had returned from the shopping one day, he found Peter's head cut out of that picture and replaced with a toads head, compliments of Sirius.

There was another noticeable difference in this world; the Remus of this world looked older, more worn out.

He was brought back from his thoughts by the sound of glass on the table.  Remus had brought back two cups of tea and a plate of biscuits.  He sat down across from James and looked him in the eye.

"So, Mr. Filch, what would you like to ask me about?"

James cleared his throat and silently cursed Sirius for insisting on such an ugly name for himself.  Well, at least the nose and mouth that Sirius transfigured didn't look too bad, considering Sirius wanted to make him look somewhat like Filch so that James could say he was a relative.

"How about we start from the start.  How did you become a werewolf?  How were you treated, and how did you react?"

Remus took a sip of his tea and thought for a moment, staring into James' blue eyes as if searching for something.  It was as though Remus found the genuine interest in James' eyes and then decided to begin his tale, "well, I was bitten when I was very young.  I was six then, out in the forest at the back of my home, playing with my pet dog.  It was a bright night, the full moon was high in the sky and it was bright enough for me not to get lost.  My parents were not aware I was out playing so late, or else they would have stopped me.  I was just young and didn't know of the dangers that lurked in the dark, carefree in my youth.  At a point in the night, I heard an ear-piercing howl and turned around towards the rapid footsteps that grew louder and louder with each passing moment.  I remember taking in the form, a large dark wolf with glowing yellow eyes, as I froze to the spot.  The wolf pounced, it's front paws crashing into my shoulders, the two of us landing roughly on the ground.  It was when I saw it's sharp teeth and felt it's warm breath on my face that I remembered to scream, and it was when I began to scream that I felt the pain in my right shoulder…"

James knew that Remus usually did not talk so much at a time to a stranger, but knew that it was not often that he came across a stranger who was genuinely interested in the human part of the dark creature he was and symphathized with him.  The story went on for a good part of an hour, James continuing to ask questions and Remus continuing to answer.  Yes, I had a hard time of it when I was younger.  No, I didn't know how to handle it at first.  No, my parents did not disown me for what was out of my control.  No, I did not make many friends.

After listening to stuff that he mostly already knew about Remus' childhood, and after many creative doodles on his notepad, the topic finally reached the one he had been awaiting; how his life changed after Hogwarts.

"So Mr. Lupin, after Albus Dumbledore accepted you into Hogwarts, how did your life change?  Did you make any friends?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a great man, an amazing friend and my mentor.  He accepted me when no-one else would.  It was the first time in my life I was given a chance to a proper education, as my parents taught me at home out of fear, or more out of knowledge, that I would be shunned at school for what I am.  At Hogwarts, I was sorted into Gryffindor, and it was there that I met people who would have been my friends for life."

James sat on the edge of his seat, this would reach the part he had been waiting for, "sorry, I couldn't help but notice you saying 'would have been', so are they not your friends now?"

At the question, Remus' eyes hardened, "I am still friends with one of them.  One of them turned out to be a traitor, and the other dead."

James took a sharp intake of breath, '_well, that explains some things.  I must have been the traitor in this world, Pettigrew dead, and Sirius the only living friend left.'_

The last statement left a silence hanging in the air while James searched his mind for a way to pose a question to find out more about this worlds' Marauders.  Finally, James settled on taking the kindly approach, "I'm sorry to hear about that.  If you don't mind me asking, off the record of course but out of curiosity, what happened to the traitor?"

Remus looked at him strangely, "I thought that you would have done some research before you came here, surely you know what happened to the most famous convict alive?"

James racked his brain for an excuse when he heard a scratching at the front door.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Filch" Remus stood up, giving James a last searching look, and went to answer the door.  James breathed a sigh of relief at the excuse to prolong his answer.  '_So, I am a famous convict, am I?  What did I do?'  Pondering what he'd just learnt and drawing more doodles on his notepad, he didn't hear the front door close and footsteps coming towards him.  However, a loud familiar bark caught his attention and he stood and turned around to find a big black blob of fur crashing into his stomach.  Landing on his black on the floor, he looked up to see this world's Sirius growling down at him._

~*~

The day outside was warm, although the clouds covered any sunlight from reaching the soft couches in the small lounge room.  Even though the day was warm, the fireplace was roaring.  Remus had just finished speaking to Dumbledore about their progress in gathering forces to fight the coming times of darkness when he heard a loud knocking at the door.  It was probably Sirius, so he quickly made his way to the front door and was surprised to find a stranger standing there.  The man had a nice face, with neat hair slicked back and bright eyes, and he was dressed in clean official-looking robes.  The man began to talk the moment the door was open, showing his name card and shaking Remus' hand firmly.  He didn't know what to think of this onslaught, and although a part of his mind wanted to kick this mouth-box out of his house, the larger polite part of his mind wanted to ask the man in and to tell the man all about how werewolve's are not to be feared on non-fullmoon days and all about the insults and unfair treatment he had received as a child.  After the reporter's introductory speech, Remus gave a small polite smile, stood to the side, and motioned for the reporter to come in.

The reporter looked around his house, taking in all the pictures on the walls.  Remus asked him to sit down and began making tea.  While he was making the tea, he noticed the reporter's eyes roaming the house, and something like recognition flicker in the depth of the blue eyes.  He finished making the tea and placed it on the table between them.

"So, Mr. Filch, what would you like to ask me about?"  _Jupiter Filch, what a name!_  Of course, his polite nature kept him from laughing at that, so he settled with a small smile.

"How about we start from the start.  How did you become a werewolf?  How were you treated, and how did you react?"

Remus looked at the reporter; he seemed genuinely interested in what Remus had to say about his mistreatment due to his condition, but one could not be so sure by looks alone.  Then again, telling a story about how one became a werewolf couldn't hurt, it was common knowledge that people became a werewolf because they got bitten and that werewolves were detested among most of the wizarding world.  Besides, Remus had time to spare, waiting for replies from the wizards that were gathering, and even if this reporter was not genuine, it would be nice to have someone listen to your side of the story.  Not to mention, if this reporter twisted his words, the wolf within him will chase after this man until the end of eternity, not to mention an angry black dog would be after his ankles as well, or maybe a little higher…

So Remus decided that nothing bad could come of telling a little tale, and he began.  As he told the familiar story, he noticed that the reporter was listening intently and sometimes scribbled something on the pad, which looked suspiciously like a picture of a hooked nose man with spiky hair.  He continued his story anyway as the man seemed genuinely interested.

It was when they got to the part about going to Hogwarts that the reporter seemed to change a little.  Before, the reporter had asked questions about how he coped this and that and what he thought about this and that.  However, the way he posed the question about his friends seemed very different to the questioning style that he had occupied before.  Remus answered, and noticed the surprise in the reporter's face.  And the next question was even stranger, '_didn't this man do any research at all?_'

"I thought that you would have done some research before you came here, surely you know what happened to the most famous convict alive?"  Remus watched this man carefully, and the reporter seemed at a loss for words when there was a slight scratching at the door.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Filch," Remus gave the reporter a searching look before going to answer the door.  Even before he got to the door he knew who it was, firstly, who scratched a door?  Secondly, the loud panting was a dead giveaway.

Remus opened the door and let the big black dog in, "I'm in the middle of an interview with a Daily Prophet reporter, you might want to go upstairs and get some rest."  Sirius nodded and followed Remus part of the way down the hall.  When they passed the kitchen and Remus went in, however, Sirius followed.  Remus looked at Sirius searchingly and was surprised when Sirius barked and pounced on the reporter.  A low growl was emitted from Sirius, and Sirius changed back into his human form, hands still pinning the reporter on the floor.

"_Who are you and where is Harry?_"

~*~

AN:  That was longer than my first chapter, and my fingers are dropping off of my hands!  I felt that it was important to have the different points of views, 'cos you'd wanna know why Remus, smart man that he is, let a total stranger into his house.  I mean, didn't we learn that in school, kids, not to speak to strangers?  ^_^  Anyway, I probably have a tendency to show you the same scene from multiple people's point of view so please bear with me!  I'll try not to do it too often though, as I noticed that it took up more space and therefore, more time!  As for action, well, as much as I enjoy reading it, I don't think I'll be writing much of it.  Hope you enjoyed this though!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all other characters that you recognize belong to JKR and Warner Bros. blah blah blah, no copyright infringement intended, as I am making no profit at all, so please don't sue!

AN: I don't have time to answer to the reviews, but thank you all for being such nice people and reviewing my fic!  I hope this chapter will answer some of your questions!  As for some other questions people left in their reviews, they will be answered in the next chapters.

Chapter 3

~*~

Sirius (the Sirius we know) had gone to 4 Privet Drive to make sure his godson was doing okay.  He was flooded with memories of the end of the third task, when Harry came back, bloody and injured, a haunted look in those brilliant green eyes.  Harry had not been well, but Sirius was not able to stay with him, therefore he was on his way to checkup on him.

He had apparated a few blocks away, changed into a dog, and sprinted to the place.  When he got there, he smelled something familiar in the air.  He smelled his godson, and he smelled human bile.  He smelled something very familiar which could only have been the work of dark magic, and he smelled his own smell!  Sirius leapt over the fence and ran to the window.  He looked in to see Vernon Dursley pointing at his wife and yelling at her.  Their fat son Dudley was sitting on the couch, watching his parents argue as though it was entertainment.

"You should not have let the boy get away!"

"I couldn't do anything, they had those sticks pointed at us!  _You_ should have done something!"

"Now that the boy's gone, who's going to clean up the garden…?"

Sirius didn't need to hear anything else.  It wasn't difficult to determine who the  'boy' was that they spoke of.  Certainly, rage was boiling through his veins, but he knew that finding his godson was more important than blowing his cover to hex a couple of muggles.  That could wait for later.  Turning around to go, Sirius saw some ministry wizards (recognisable by their distinct style of robes) walking towards 4 Privet Drive, and ran the other way.

After running a few blocks, Sirius apparated to Remus' home and scratched the door.  With his keen sense of hearing, he heard two voices inside, and then a set footsteps coming to the front door.  The door opened and Sirius quickly entered.

"I'm in the middle of an interview with a Daily Prophet reporter, you might want to go upstairs and get some rest," hearing the whispered warning, Sirius shook his head _I need to find Harry _he thought to himself.  If Remus was busy, he'd have to owl a letter to Albus.  He followed Remus and was about to go separate ways from Remus when he smelt that familiar scent again, same as the one at the Dursley's.  He followed Remus into the dining room and saw the man sitting at the table, a cup of tea in front of him, his eyes on his notepad as he scribbled furiously.  The scent of Harry assailed him, and then another familiar smell he refused to believe.  Only one thing made sense to him at the moment; _it must be dark magic creating that scent, this must be a Death Eater who has Harry in his hands!_

Letting out a loud bark, Sirius ran at the man, who stood up, looking surprised.  Sirius leapt and crashed into the man, landing in a heap on the floor.  He quickly transformed back into his human form.  

"_Who are you and where is Harry?_"

Blue eyes widened with recognition, but the man stuttered, "I… I don't know what you're t…talking about."  _If I was a Death Eater here, I'd sure be a dead man if I told them I have Harry.  Not to mention _I _want to know what Harry was doing at those blasted Dursleys_, "are you a friend of Mr. Lupins?  My name is Jupiter Filch, I believe that if you went to Hogwarts as well?  You'd know my uncle Argus…"  _Hey, why not?  Filch might even get him out of this mess if he promised something good, like some of the less-useful secret passageways…_ridiculous thought, James, really ridiculous!

Not letting go, Sirius laughed harshly, "my my, a reporter who cannot recognize the most famous convict alive!"  Sirius was pleased by the shocked expression on the man's face, "now who are you?  I could smell Harry all over you, and I smell my dead friend on you as well!  What have you done with Harry!?" 

_Great, so of all the things that give away my identity, it's Harry's smell.  But dead friend…?_  James looked up at Remus and saw a wand pointing down at him.  He sighed in resignation, "Okay Remus, do the reversal spell on me."

Remus was shocked at the request and for a moment wondered if it was a trick.  However, the reversal spell should not have any strange side effects.  As he thought this, he also wondered why a Death Eater would pose as a reporter to hear his life story?  Maybe the Death Eater had the patience to wait until the story turned to his life at Hogwarts and from there lead him to Sirius, "finite incantem".

Before their very eyes, the long nose shortened and the lips widened slightly.  The neat brown hair darkened and became messy, and the gentle blue eyes darkened slightly.  Even the oval-rimmed glasses widened and became round-rimmed, and Jupiter Filch became an image of James Potter.

The two men gasped, "what dark magic is this?" Sirius breathed.

"Look, I can explain," James began, seeing the shocked expressions he was receiving, "I am James Potter, from another world!  In my world, I am not a Death Eater…"

"_Not _a Death Eater?  James Potter is _dead, and you come along looking exactly like him and saying you're not a Death Eater?  Who else would dare do that to his memory!?"  Sirius drew back his fist and was just about to launch a punch when the fire in the lounge roared loudly, becoming a green colour, and out of the fireplace stepped Albus Dumbledore._

Wand not leaving James' head, Remus looked up, "Albus, what brings you here?"

Dumbledore took in the scene, seeing Sirius about to punch a James look-alike and Remus standing guard with his wand out, "I forgot to mention some things concerning Harry's safety.  It looks as though I came at a very good time though…"

Seeing the wise old wizard, James' hopes rose, "Albus, look!  I'm not a Death Eater, I _am James Potter, I've come from a different dimension.  __Please, believe me!"_

"Albus, this man was posing as a reporter, interviewing Remus.  I smelt James on him, but James is dead, so I figured it was dark magic.  I also smelt Harry on him, and Harry's no longer at the Dursleys!"  At this, Sirius tightened his grip on James.

Giving the James look-alike a piercing look, Dumbledore seemed to come to a decision, "Sirius, if you could please get off of him," Dumbledore took out his wand and pointed it at James.

Sirius complied obediently, and James sat up and straightened his glasses.  He crossed his legs and leaned his elbows on his knees, and watched silently as Dumbledore cast all sorts of revealing spells on him, only to come up with nothing.  Dumbledore's eyes softened as he said, "there is no sign of dark magic, and there are no image-changing spells that I could detect.  However, as a precaution, Sirius, I would like you to test this man's knowledge on what you know of your best friend."

Upon seeing no Death Eater appearing from Dumbledore's spells, Sirius' heart-beat sped up a little.  _This is what James would have looked like now if he was alive…_Sirius looked more than slightly hopeful at Dumbledore's announcement, and thought up a question immediately, "okay, start with something simple, when did we first meet?"

"Sirius lived in a muggle neighbourhood.  On a holiday in the non-magical world, I met him at a muggle park when we were six.  Keep in mind, things may have been different in my dimension…"

"No, that's right!"  Sirius sounded excited, "what was the first prank we pulled at Hogwarts?"

"Now, I'm not sure we should be mentioning this in Albus' presence…" James looked up at Dumbledore to see the twinkling blue eyes, "okay, after our first week at Hogwarts, we had already discovered several secret passageways.  It was only you and me, we didn't know our other dorm mates very well yet.  With some luck, and of course, the use of my cloak (does this Albus know about the cloak?), we were able to follow Professor Stiller to the kitchens.  Once the professor had left the kitchens, the house elves were only too happy to be of service.  We had a special treat for Snape, who had been constantly insulting us since we were in Gryffindor, and the next day at breakfast, he was the very first victim of our Extra Special Peppered Pancakes.  Smoke wouldn't stop coming out of his ears, and we had never seen anyone go so red!  He couldn't stop crying, the food was so hot!  Did that happen in this world too?"

Remus shook his head, having suspected the two pranksters all this time but never hearing a confession, Dumbledore had that twinkle-eye look, and Sirius grinned, "Yes!  That was our very special prank, as it was our first at Hogwarts and achieved without the other Marauders, we never even told anyone how we managed it!  Okay, why is your nickname Prongs?"

With a look at Dumbledore, James said, "uh, does everyone know about it in this world?"

Dumbledore smiled, "no, not everyone.  I did not discover it until two years ago."

Nodding silently, James stood up and transformed into a brown stag.  Sirius and Remus stared at the stag, and Sirius walked up to him and placed a hand on his head, "even if dark magic was used to duplicate an image of him, the animagus form can never be duplicated as it relies solely on the individual's characteristics," Sirius whispered.

"I can remember that stag anywhere, the markings are identical, and the eyes, they tell the truth," Remus whispered also, as though not wanting to break the extraordinary moment.

Sirius removed his hand, and James resumed his human form.  He looked at each of them, and when he looked to Dumbledore, Dumbledore nodded, "it would seem as though this man is truly a James Potter from a different world."

"Should've done that at the beginning, would've saved the interrogation…" James muttered, but before he could finish, he found Sirius hugging the daylights out of him, and Remus joining in the hug as well.  James didn't know how to respond, so he just hugged them back, a look of confusion on his face.

"James, oh James, I never thought I'd see you again!"  Both Remus and Sirius seemed to have tears in their eyes as they broke apart from the hug.  Sirius took out a dirty handkerchief from his robes, blew his nose loudly, and wiped the tears from his eyes, getting some stains on his face from the dirty handkerchief.  He looked at James and gave a very teary smile, and a new rise of tears began.  Remus was a little more discrete, and turned away as he used a finger to wipe away the stray tear.

Dumbledore looked as though he wanted to join in the hug as well but was having trouble restraining himself.  He walked up to James and gave a quick but warm hug.  He stepped back, and with a clap of his hands he smiled cheerfully, "I believe a lot of explanations are required, how about we all have a seat, a cup of tea, and we shall begin."

~*~

"So you and your world's Sirius had the idea in your heads that cross-dimensional travel was possible, due to a couple of crazies claiming that they came from different worlds.  You then did a lot of research and discovered that all these crazies said they appeared at the same points, or several similar points in the world, which you discovered were points of concentrated magic.  It was then possible for Sirius and yourself to perform a set of spells you made up as the two of you shared a brotherly bond and different worlds had bonds of a similar type, and by perfoming these spells at these points of magic you have travelled to our world, which seems to be the dimension closest to yours," Remus said unbelievingly.

James nodded, "mind, it took us the better part of two years to figure all that out.  And then when we saw Harry, he accused me of being a Death Eater then fainted, so I needed to find out what I was in this world, therefore pretending to be a reporter to ask Remus about his friends, as Harry called me a Death Eater, I thought I was a traitor in this world."

"Are you sure you know how to get back to your world?"  Dumbledore asked worriedly, "from what you tell me, you've left family back in your world, what if you failed to return?"

"We are certain we can return, it's quite simple.  We just have to go to the point where we appeared and recast the spells.  Because this was the closest world to ours, and we only used a spell that did not require too much magic, it should take us back to our world.  Not to mention, if we took some time off and plotted some points on graphs and charts and get the exact place in dimension, we can narrow our spell down to a few words to take us directly from this place to ours (AN: similar to plotting vectors but say, in 4D, with 4 components, rather than 2 or 3.  It's just a fanfic so let's just say doing this is possible, as I do not have a proper theory for this!)  Speaking of family, what was Harry doing at the Dursleys?"

With a sigh, Dumbledore retold the recent history of magic, including Harry's fame and unfortunate luck to have to stay with the Dursleys, "and so Harry stays there every summer after school, for his safety."

Harry was supposed to be safe as long as he lived with his relatives.  However, the other-world Sirius and James was able to take him away, which showed that there was a fault in the shields.  The fault was that it recognized people who had no ill intent towards Harry, and the shield also recognized certain people, like Sirius.  James was able to cross the shield as the shield recognized him as a relative, even though he was just a counterpart of sorts.  The problem with the shield, however, was if Death Eaters decided to use an innocent muggle to get at Harry, they would most likely succeed.  This was the problem Dumbledore came to discuss with Remus.

"Why was Harry stay with the Dursley's if we were dead?  Why didn't he stay with Sirius, or Remus even?"

Silence, and seeing Sirius all tensed up, Remus thought it better if he did the explaining, "I, for one, am a werewolf, and therefore it was unsuitable for me to look after a baby.  Even if I wanted to, which I did, the Ministry of Magic would not allow it.  Everyone thought Sirius here was the secret-keeper and therefore they thought he was a Death Eater and betrayed you.  When Sirius went after Wormtail, Wormtail framed him and disappeared in the sewers, disguised as a rat.  Sirius was captured and put in Azkaban for life…"

James stared at Sirius.  There was shock, anger, and sadness evident on his face, "if you were put in Azkaban for life, howcome you're not there anymore?  Was Wormtail captured?"

Remus shook his head, "Sirius escaped from Azkaban two years ago and went after Wormtail, who was disguised as the Weasley's pet rat.  However, he got away again."  Sirius' knuckles were white as he gripped his mug of tea.  There was silence as James thought about all that the Sirius and Remus of this world must have been through.  _No wonder they look older and more worn out…_

"Sirius (well, my world's Sirius) and I have taken care of Harry for now."  James broke the silence.

"From what we've heard, it sounds as though your earlier life was mostly like your life was here.  It seems as though there must have been a great pivotal point which resulted in you being alive though?"  Sirius asked, momentarily forgetting his anger at Wormtail.

Dumbledore, who sat across from James, rested his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers, "from what you've told us, James, it seems as though our worlds began to differ from the point when Wormtail was accidently discovered to be the traitor, which never happened in this world."  He looked towards James for a clearer explanation.

"In our world, Wormtail was late coming home from one of his Death Eater meetings.  He had been put under Cruciatus for giving inaccurate information.  He didn't expect me to be up waiting for him to come back, as he was staying with us at that time.  I had been worried about why he seemed so weak, and when I helped him onto our couch, I found that he was bleeding from his arm.  When I tried to help him bandage it, he insisted he was okay, but I was sure he wasn't, so I pulled up his sleeve and found the Dark Mark on his forearm.

"I was shocked, but I pretended not to be aware of it, as we had already decided that we would use Peter as our secret-keeper and this could be a useful trap for Voldemort.  This information could also be used to our advantage so that we could give false information, therefore I pretended not to notice it as I turned around and got some bandages for him, and he bandaged himself up.

"Albus had devised a way to stop Voldemort's rise to power.  He had found an ancient spell which could lock Voldemort's power, and on Halloween night, Albus cast that spell on Voldemort when he came to our house at Godric's Hollow.  Voldemort fled, no longer able to use his powers.  There are still Death Eaters loyal to him, and on several ocassions they demonstrate their loyalty by going on random muggle hunts.  However, Voldemort is in hiding and is still searching for the key to his powers, with the help of his loyal Death Eaters."

The other three nodded their heads at this information, "so there are two pivotal points in your world.  Firstly, we never discovered Wormtail was the traitor, and secondly, I never found this ancient spell you speak of.  Our world's differed from those points onwards, Voldemort was not gone, just powerless, but his servants still follow him."

"Albus wasn't keen on killing him when his powers were gone, and therefore didn't kill him at that time to let Voldemort learn from his wrong ways.  To have Voldemort powerless would make him understand what it was like to be a muggle.  However, this only served to anger Voldemort, and with his followers still obeying him, he planned several attacks on magical dwellings over the past years, but mostly he still ordered muggle hunts, and sometimes, as I mentioned before, he doesn't even need to order his Death Eaters for them to go on muggle hunts as they do that out of loyalty towards Voldemort.  However, as Voldemort may have noticed that it is difficult for him to do much without his powers, the attacks in general have stopped for the last five or so years.  We all know that he still searches for the key to his powers, and it is evident that he will not change from his old ways.  Therefore, now Albus is intent on finding him and killing him once and for all, before Voldemort has a chance to return to power."  James looked at Dumbledore to see his reaction to his counterpart's actions, only, as expected, to see no reaction at all.

Dumbledore stood up from his seat, "well, I think we're all keen on seeing how young Harry is doing."

James stood up as well, "our Sirius and I have taken him to a very safe place, we can all apparate there if you wish."

Remus and Sirius looked at James, and while Remus stood up, he caught sight of James' notepad and the edges of his lips curled up slightly.

"Uh, James?  Care to tell us what you were going to do with your interview notes?"  There was a picture of a man with spiky hair and a hooked nose.  His face was unhappy, and he was wearing a tutu.  A speech bubble said, "I am a pretty ballerina.  Do not underestimate my ability, I can spike you with my horns!"

"It was to be a gift for my friend, I was going to stick it up in his office for him."

Sirius looked at the picture and burst out laughing, Remus shook his head at his friends' immature antics, and Dumbledore smiled widely.

"Anyway, enough with that, you want to know how to get to Harry, right…?"

~*~

'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, would have to be one of the silliest plays he's ever read, and Sirius wondered why James insisted on adding it to their store of books.  How could people be so afraid of witches, and who was stupid enough to go killing without any evidence?  _At least if someone had dared accuse me I would have hexed them into the next century!  But James had said it was a famous work of literature, and if ever the side of the light was to be stuck here for a long period of time, say, decades, then their children would need to be educated in all aspects of the world._

Sirius (the other-world Sirius) sat at Harry's side.  The boy was resting peacefully, and his temperature had dropped quite a lot.  His breathing was even, and there no was need to wipe away his sweat every so often anymore.  However, Harry had muttered some things in his sleep that disturbed Sirius.  _I'm sorry Cedric, it's all my fault…_ the sad voice still lingered in Sirius' ears, but it had not been repeated for the last half-hour or so.  Of course, it might have just been some little teenage misunderstanding that Harry was worried over, but Sirius doubted it, the tone of Harry's voice told him so.

This Harry looked thinner than the Harry he knew.  His build was smaller too, that was, if they were the same age.  And there was a strange scar on his forehead that his Harry didn't have.  It looked kind of cool, but he had heard that only dark magic could leave a scar like that, and that thought made him shiver.

Other thoughts were floating around his head.  If James was a Death Eater, then why would Harry be staying at the Dursleys and not with Lily, or with him?  Harry seemed to know him, so why wasn't Harry staying with him?

It was as Sirius was staring at Harry that he noticed Harry's body tensing, his eyebrows furrowed together in what looked like a painful frown, and to his utter surprise, Harry opened his mouth and let out the most agonizing scream that Sirius ever heard.  He began to thrash around, his hands holding his forehead.

Sirius was not sure what to do, perhaps Harry was having a really bad nightmare?  So the best thing he could think of was to try and wake him up.

"Harry, HARRY!"  Sirius shook Harry's shoulders.  The shouting and shaking didn't work, so in a fit of confusion, Sirius conjured a glass of ice water and poured it on Harry's face.

Green eyes flashed opened instantly, and Sirius muttered a drying spell.

"Harry, are you all right?"  The green eyes roamed around the room and rested on Sirius.  Sirius placed his glasses on for him.

"Sirius?  Where am I?  What happened?"  Harry was still trembling slightly.  Sirius saw this and charmed a heating spell on the blankets.

Sirius was about to answer when he heard footsteps outside the medical ward.  He stood up and was about to tell James not to come in when, to his surprise, the aged form of Dumbledore swept in.

"Albus?  Ho… how did you get in here?"

Dumbledore chuckled mysteriously, "I have my ways.  I have met a certain friend of yours who showed me the way here.  I have come to see how young Harry is doing."

Even though it's only been a moment, Sirius felt that this Dumbledore was no different from the Dumbledore he knew, "Harry had a fever, but it's getting a lot better now…" as he looked at Harry, he saw that Harry's scar looked red, as though it was newly acquired, "Harry, your scar, what happened?"

Walking swiftly up to the side of Harry's bed, Dumbledore sat down in a seat beside the bed, opposite to Sirius, and felt a hand to Harry's forehead and found the temperature was nearly normal, yet the scar was burning hot.

"Did you have one of your dreams Harry?"  He stared at Harry with his piercing look.

Falling back onto the pillows, Harry replied in monotone, "I saw Voldemort, he was torturing Karkaroff.  He would not kill Karkaroff straight away, he wanted him to die slowly…"  Dumbledore's hand on Harry's shoulder made him feel a little more relaxed, "he kept casting Cruciatus, and I felt it every time.  I couldn't wake up, until Sirius woke me up."  Harry looked around him again, "where am I?"

"You are in Helga's Hole.  You are safe for now."

"How did I get here?  Who took me away from the Dursley's?"

"Uh, I did," Sirius risked a quick look at Dumbledore to see his reaction, but as expected Dumbledore didn't let any of his emotions show.  Sirius wanted to know why Harry was at the Dursley's in the first place.  He also wanted to know why Harry had dreams of Voldemort and was able to feel the torture, but all that could be explained later. "Harry, before you had your nightmare, did you have any other dreams?"

Harry paled slightly and stuttered, "n… no.  What m… makes you think th that?"  With two sets of piercing eyes on him, Harry didn't feel too safe about lying.

_This Harry is a bad liar_ Sirius thought to himself, "you said to Cedric that you were sorry, and it was all your fault.  You seemed very upset."

With a sigh, Dumbledore shook his head and said, "Harry, I know you feel guilty about Cedric, but you shouldn't.  It was out of your control."

There was silence as Harry sat and stared at nothing in particular.  While he was grateful that Dumbledore didn't think Harry killed Cedric, Harry knew that Cedric died because of him.  No doubt a lot of Hufflepuffs blamed him for Cedric's death, and Cedric's parents probably blamed him.  But that was to be expected; he blamed himself.  Tears began to well in Harry's eyes, "but if I hadn't asked him to take the cup with me, he'd be alive…"

"Your actions only gave Cedric happiness, for him to be able to share the victory.  But you did not kill him, it was Voldemort who killed him.  Sirius told your parents to change secret-keepers, and in doing so was partly the cause of their death.  Do you blame Sirius?"  Sirius stared at Dumbledore, stunned at this announcement.  _So James and Lily are dead in this world… no wonder Harry was freaked out when he saw James.  But if James and Lily died, how did Harry survive?  Also, it must've been my fault that they are dead in this world…_

"No, of course not.  Pettigrew was the cause of their death…"

"As was Voldemort the cause of Cedric's.  Sirius only played a part in the fate of your parents, and so did you in Cedric's fate.  You shouldn't blame yourself…" before Dumbledore could finish, there were hurried footsteps behind him.  The three people in the room looked up to see a worried looking James hurrying towards them.  Upon seeing him, Harry promptly fainted again.

~*~

AN: There were several different ways I wanted to end that chapter, but I typed the simplest way that came to my head.  I do agree with a reviewer that Harry fainting is one of the most commonly used endings to chapters!  At least it sort of came about how I imagined it would.  There were several things I wanted to mention in this chapter, like Hedwig, but I'll explain where she is later.  I hope this chapter answered some of your questions!  Also, Sirius could recognise James' smell because even though they are from different dimensions and are technically different people, they are made up of the same DNA and matter, therefore they emit the same smell as they are the same.  (I have never done biology, so correct me if I'm wrong, this is just an explanation I needed to make up to clarify why Sirius recognised James!)

  Jeswin, you asked why Remus couldn't smell James, I'm assuming that he is all human on non-fullmoon days, even though some traits may carry over, like strength.  In my story, smell is not a trait that carries over, then again, I'm no expert!  Even if Remus had a slightly better sense of smell than normal humans, it would be nowhere near as good as Sirius' when he's a dog.  So if anyone knows if werewolves _should have a good sense of smell even when they're human, please let me know!  That doesn't mean I'm going to change my story though, but I'll keep that in mind next time I have the urge to begin another story.  Let's just say in my fic that he's stronger when he's human, that's all!  Also, I'm hoping you were the only one who took HH in the wrong context, 'cos I didn't even consider it while I was typing! ^_^_


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All the things of the HP world that you recognize belongs to JKR, the plot belongs to me. ^_^

AN: Thanks to all reviews, they are more interesting to read than the process of chemical bonding and hybridisation, and more motivational too!

  As there are two Sirius' now, the other-world Sirius I will call oSirius, and the other Sirius will be left as Sirius.  If that is difficult to understand, then please suggest an easier way to do it.  Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4

~*~

James had described to this world's Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore, the process of getting into the hole.  Once they apparated in there, they discussed what they were going to do.  Sirius was very eager to see Harry, having not seen him since after the Triwizard Tournament.  However, as there was already oSirius in the room, they couldn't let Harry see two Sirius' just yet, as that might frighten Harry.  Harry could not see James either, as James was supposed to be dead in this world.  In the end, Dumbledore was the one to enter the medical ward, and the other three were left to each other's company.

Remus and Sirius wanted to hear what it was like in the other world, and James began to describe his family life in brief.  However, the more James talked about his family, the more he felt the parental urge to just storm into the ward to see how Harry was doing.  Technically, the boy in there wasn't James' son, but in a sense he was.  After about five minutes of talking, he could no longer resist it and, surprising both Remus and Sirius, he hurried into the medical ward to see how his 'son' was doing.

Much to his disappointment, the moment Harry saw him, he fainted again.

~*~

_I'm hungry…_ was the first thought that came to Harry's mind as his eyes slowly opened.  He looked around, and even with his unfocused eyes, he recognized what the black warm weight on his side was.  Harry gently shook the great dog.

"Sirius?"

The dog opened it's eyes and stared at Harry for a moment before he changed into a human, sitting on the side of Harry's bed.

"You're finally awake!  You've been asleep for two days!"  Sirius placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, and was very tempted to lift Harry up and hug him, but wasn't sure if that was a good idea, in case Madam Pomfrey came in and kicked him out.  Dumbledore had explained to the nurse the truth of Sirius' innocence, and therefore she allowed him to stay.

"Don't tell me I'm in the hospital wing again?"

"How did you know?  You don't have your glasses on."

"I've woken up here without my glasses on multiple occassions, and I recognise the smell."

Sirius chuckled, "we took you from the hole to Hogwarts while you were asleep, as at Hogwarts you can have the proper care from Madam Pomfrey.  As much as Helga's Hole was safe, Dumbledore didn't want us coming in and out of that place too much as the more we use that place, the more chance there is of someone else finding out it's secrets."

"What was Helga's Hole anyway?"  Harry found his glasses on the bedside table, where they usually were when he woke up in the hospital wing, and placed them on.

This world's Sirius tried to remember most of the details James included in his story, and relayed it to Harry.  Sirius and this world's James had apparantly not found the place, as the other-world pair had found it soon after they had discovered Wormtail's betrayal and as that never happened in this world, the finding of the hole did not happen.  Harry seemed to waken a lot more as the story progressed, and Sirius helped Harry prop himself up on a pile of pillows so that Harry could take a drink of water and some potions.

"So only people who know the password can apparate in there, and as Hufflepuff's decendant lost her memory in an accident, that secret now lies with us."

"That means that you actually know who Hufflepuff's decendant was?"

"Yeah, it was a Hufflepuff who was a few years older than us.  We knew she was the heir of Hufflepuff as her name was written in the scrolls.  We checked her out and found that she had been in a flying accident and lost her memory."

"So have you told her about this secret?"

Sirius shook his head, "we wanted to see if she'd get her memory back or not at first, but it never came back.  We decided not to share the secret until she learnt more about herself and became more familiar with the life she used to have."  While Sirius was telling this story, he wondered if that amnesiac Hufflepuff even existed in this world.

"Harry, Dumbledore said he wanted to speak to you when you were awake, so I'll have to go and find him now.  Will you be okay by yourself for a while?"

Harry smiled, "Sirius, I'm not a baby, I can be by myself for a few minutes."

Sirius grinned back, "I'll be back in a minute."

With that, he left the ward, not changing to a dog as the castle was mostly empty at this time of the year anyway.

In the grips of Sirius' story, Harry had momentarily forgotten about the man he saw who looked exactly like the photos of his dad in his photo album.  He remembered he fainted at the sight of that man and was slightly embarrassed.  _I can't believe I fainted in front of a Death Eater, twice!  But wait a minute, didn't that Death Eater appear when Sirius was there, and later when Sirius _and_ Dumbledore was there?_  These thoughts swam around in Harry's head for a while, even as Madam Pomfrey came in, slightly ruffled, and began a checkup on Harry.

"I can see you're awake, I can't believe _Sirius Black didn't let me know you were awake when I asked him specifically to let me know," she said the name 'Sirius Black' with distaste, and Harry wondered briefly what pranks Sirius must have pulled on her when he was younger.  Dumbledore had decided to let several people in on Sirius' innocence, namely McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey who he felt was important, for if Sirius got in an accident, would Pomfrey had helped him if she still thought he was a murderer?  She most likely would help, as it was in her nature, but she wouldn't do it to the best of her abilities, "it's for his own godson's health and he doesn't even care!"_

"Madam Pomfrey, I feel a lot better already, and I drank the potion that was left here too.  I don't think I would have died if you didn't see me straight away.  Besides, Sirius was just excited that I was awake and must've forgotten to get you," Harry tried to defend his godfather, but Madam just humphed and continued her checkup.

"Well Mr. Potter, it seems that you have recovered very quickly, however, you will need to stay in bed for a few days at least, as your body has not got all the nutrition it needs and has been overworked.  And when I say 'stay in bed', I mean no getting out of bed, unless to relieve yourself, understand?"  Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a piercing look that almost matched Dumbledore's, and Harry nodded quickly, wishing he was no longer under such scrutiny, it made him uncomfortable.  _Stay in bed, that was easy enough.  _The nurse left and returned with a tray full of food and an array of bottles.  Harry took a glimpse at the full tray, and then his eyes flew to the window and the bright day outside.  _Stay in bed, easier said then done…_

"You are to eat as much as you can, and these bottles are to replace the pumpkin juice you usually drink at your meals.  These are energy and protein rich drinks, and don't look like that, they actually taste quite nice once you get used to them," she gave Harry a slight smile and patted him on the head, before turning to leave, "and the little blue bottle is a strengthening potion, you are to drink it all."

Harry looked at the tray and sighed, _before, I thought I was so hungry I could eat a horse, but I don't think I'd be able to eat this _much.  But if I don't try, she's going to force me to swallow even more awful potions…_and with that, he began to pick his way through the food._

~*~

Harry had just finished the bottle of the energy-protein rich drink, which, to his relief, didn't taste too bad, when he heard the door open.  Dumbledore strode into the room, and Sirius was behind him.  Dumbledore took a seat at the side of his bed and beamed down at him, "you are looking are lot better, how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fine.  I wish those energy and protein rich drinks were a little sweeter though," Harry smiled.

Dumbledore chuckled, "I may have to consult our Potions Master, see if he can create a sweeter drink that has the same properties."

"If you told him it was for Harry, I think he'd make it even more foul-tasting on purpose," Sirius couldn't help saying that.

"Please Sirius, don't let your previous animosity cloud your judgement so much," Dumbledore smiled gently as he said that, but somehow his tone of voice suggested that he agreed with Sirius' judgement.  

"Sirius, could you please bring our visitors and ask them to wait outside the infirmary?"  Dumbledore looked to Sirius, who nodded and quickly made his way out of the room.

Now Dumbledore turned to Harry, "I saw a Death Eater, who looked like my dad!" Harry blurted out, then reddened slightly, "sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt what you were about to say, but I just remembered!"

Dumbledore gave Harry a warm smile, "that's okay, what I wanted to speak to you about concerned this.

"Harry, do you believe that other worlds other than our own exist?  Do you believe in cross-dimensional travel?"

Harry thought for a moment, remembering all the snitches of movies he saw at the Dursleys.  Of course, he never got a chance to sit down and watch a whole movie, but he remembered some of the cross-dimensional travel movies had caught his fancy when he was younger, "I don't know, I didn't believe in magic before, but it's real, so I guess there is a possiblity that other dimensions exist and it is possible to travel between them."

"Our world is not the only world that exists.  From what research has been done, wizards have theorised that hundreds upon hundreds, thousands upon thousands, of dimensions exist, each including the same people but different situations.  For example, in this world you are in Gryffindor.  However, in another world, you could have been put in Slytherin.  They are slight differences, but from that point onwards everything about your life would have changed."

"So are you saying that there is a world out there where I was put in Slytherin?"  Harry was slightly shocked at that thought.

"No, I'm saying there is possibly a world out there where that happened, where you did not hear of the dark wizards coming from Slytherin and was put in that house.  What I'm trying to tell you that there are other worlds out there that would have been the same had something happened or not happened.

"You see, Harry, there are worlds out there where your parents are alive."

Harry was stunned at this, Harry had never thought of that possibility.  Sure, he constantly wished that his parents were alive, but never thought that it could become reality.  Was Dumbledore saying that he could see his parents?

"There is a dimension very close to ours, where Pettigrew was discovered to be a traitor, and your parents lived."

~*~

This time, James was shackled in one of the guest rooms.  Not physically, of course, but being under the scrutiny of a werewolf could be considered the same thing.  Remus and oSirius was asked to keep a very close eye on James so that he doesn't go barging in while Harry was awake again.  While James had been the most eager to see Harry, Remus was afraid that oSirius, being quite impulsive, would be just as eager to see his godson.  He was glad, though, that both of them knew enough sense this time around not to do anything impulsive.

"But he's my son…" had been James' argument.

"Technically, he isn't," was Remus'.

So Remus, oSirius, and James had spent the last day in the guest room.  

oSirius and Sirius had met when they had taken Harry through one of the Hole's secret passages to Hogwarts.  They were the same person, in a sense, and even though Sirius had been through more and was more ragged than oSirius, they had gotten along surprisingly like Fred and George Weasley did, only, this time there were two Sirius' and a James, which meant they carried on like Fred, George, and Lee Jordan did.  To this observation, Dumbledore had beamed and Remus had begun to rub his temples as he felt a slight headache.  _Well, at least they're all happy_ Remus thought.

During oSirius' brief meeting with his other self, he heard all the details of James' interview at Remus' and his discovery.  He also discovered James' gift to Snape, and the two Sirius' immediately agreed to make a quick detour to the dungeons to deliver the gift.  James went, of course, and Remus was dragged along.

The dungeons had been as dark and dreary as they remembered, and when they found the Potions Master's office, they decided that it needed some brightening.  So, making multiple copies of James' masterpiece, they added bright colours to the piece of art and hung it all over the room, using honey.  They made the candles emit a pink glow and charmed the whole office to smell like flowers.  oSirius had wanted to sign their work, but decided against it after hearing that if Snape knew Sirius did this, he'd give Harry a much harder time in class.  Then again, the work probably didn't need a signature for Snape to recognise who it belonged to.

After the four pranksters had their bit of fun, Sirius hurried back to Harry's side, and the other three had to stay in the guest room until Dumbledore deemed it wise for them to see Harry.  Dumbledore had informed Remus that if the old crowd tried to contact Remus, they'd be redirected to Hogwarts.  He also said that Remus and Sirius no longer needed to be on the mission of gathering the forces of light as the remainder of their 'gang' would be contacted by Mundungus Fletcher.  Of course, Remus wondered slightly if Albus could afford the drawback of having less of his people out there searching for the other agents of the light, but realised that Dumbledore wished to give the Marauders a bit of time to themselves as Remus and Sirius deserved some time with James again.

So Remus, oSirius, and James were left to their own devices.  Remus took a seat near the door, positioning himself so that he could launch himself at either of them if they wanted to do something silly, like get out.  oSirius and James sat on the bed

oSirius had asked Remus some very difficult questions, such as how the Potter's died that night on Halloween and how Harry survived, and why Harry had to stay with the Dursley's rather than his godfather or Remus.  

Remus thought the survival story was an easier one to tell, and hoped that if the telling of it was long enough, oSirius would forget about the other questions.  Remus began the story at the point when Voldemort tried to Avada Kedavra Harry, and then talked about the celebrations that occurred afterwards.  Sure enough halfway through the telling, the two of them began shooting questions at Remus about this world, and particularly about what Harry was like.

"Well, you all know he was orphaned.  He lived with his muggle relatives…"

"No, we already know that!  I mean, what is my son like in this world?  The two times I've seen him he's fainted…"

"If you're suggesting he's a coward, James, you are totally wrong.  Harry is the bravest kid I've ever met, he's very determined, talented, loyal, and very mature for his age.  Although he's famous and all, I don't think he likes it one bit, and he tends to be a little shy as well.  But he's a great kid…"

"Is he a prankster?" oSirius.

"No, not at all!  He tries to keep himself out of trouble most of the time, he's a sensible person…" directing this at the two grown-up not-so-sensible men.

"Does he play quidditch?" James.

"Oh, no-one's told you, but he was the youngest seeker of the century!  He's even better than James on a broomstick, I think."

James humphed at that, "no-one's better than me on a broomstick!" he pretended to pout.

The other two laughed, and when the laughter died down oSirius asked, "speaking of this world's James, you didn't answer me before.  What happened to James and Lily?  In this world, did… did I kill them?"

"Uh… you didn't," Remus shrugged his shoulders, "Voldemort did."

"But it was _my _fault that they died, right?  I asked them to switch Secret Keepers, and because of that I practically sentenced them to their deaths…"

"Okay, I'll say this, you told them to switch Secret Keepers, and because of that Voldemort found out where they were and killed them.  But if you're thinking that you were to blame and deserved punishment, then you already got your punishment."  What Remus said confirmed oSirius' suspicions about what happened in this world.

"What sort of punishment?"

Remus sighed, "this world's Sirius went after Pettigrew after he found out that James and Lily were dead.  Pettigrew framed him, and Sirius went to Azkaban for life."

There was shocked silence.  Even though James had heard the story before, he was still angry of what Pettigrew had done and that anyone could think Sirius could betray him.  oSirius had a completely blank look on his face, he was speechless.  Remus wondered if oSirius would go through the 'self-pity' stage, even though it wasn't actually him who switched Secret Keepers but his counterpart.

"Two years ago, Sirius escaped from Azkaban and went after Pettigrew, who was disguised as a pet rat.  However he got away again."  Remus answered what was on oSirius' mind, and Remus was slightly angered at oSirius' shocked silence, "and I don't know why in the world you'd feel bad about this, it wasn't even you who asked James and Lily to change Secret Keepers, and it wasn't you who was sent to Azkaban, you hardly have the right to wallow in self-pity."

oSirius' eyes hardened with a look of resolve, and at that moment James knew what oSirius was about to say.

"I am going to help capture that _rat!"_

"Well, it's going to be a little more difficult now that Voldemort's back…"

~*~

Remus had just finished telling oSirius and James about Voldemort's rebirth when there was a knock at the door.  Remus opened the door and Sirius walked in.

"Dumbledore wants all of you to come."

~*~

Harry was shocked at the announcement.  His parents were alive!

"And from this world," Dumbledore continued slowly, watching Harry's bright green eyes widen, "there has come two people.  You saw them that day you were doing the gardening."

Harry opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to figure out what to say next, "so are you saying that the Sirius I saw was a Sirius from another world, and that the man I saw was my _dad from another world?"_

Dumbledore nodded slowly, "yes, the other-Sirius and other-James had found a way to travel across dimensions.  After you fainted," Dumbledore noted that Harry blushed slightly at that, "they took you to Helga's Hole.  When you woke up and I was talking to you, James could not resist coming in to see how you were doing, and you fainted again."  He noticed Harry blush a little more.

He looked down at his hands, no longer able to look at Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes.  _My parents are alive in another world!  I saw my dad!  Harry took a few minutes of silence to absorb all the information, did that mean he could meet his mum as well?  And the rest of a family that he could have had?  He began thinking along this tangent for a while before he remembered how he had reacted to his dad the first time he saw him._

"Oh no!  He's going to hate me now because I called him a Death Eater!"

Dumbledore chuckled and patted Harry's shoulder, "I think that that was understandable, and he would not hold that accusation against you.  Would you like to see him now?"

Harry wasn't sure what to say, sure he wanted to see his dad, but what if his dad was totally disappointed in him?  Disappointed that Harry had caused the death of several people and that he caused worry amongst others at all times.  Dumbledore saw the worry in his eyes.

"Harry, there is no need to be afraid, any person would be proud to have known you, and any man would envy the man who was your father.  Everyone has said it before, but your father would be proud of you."

"Even if it's my fault so many people worry, are in danger, or are killed, because of me?"  He asked quietly.

"You cannot blame yourself for all of this, most of it is not your fault, apart from the people worrying about you, you should try to stay away from your adventures a little more," Dumbledore smiled, "but no-one blames you for anything, and as I said before, your father would be proud of you."

Not quite believing the situation, and still slightly in shock and attempting to absorb all this information, Harry gathered his Gryffindor courage nodded slightly.  Dumbledore turned towards the infirmary door, "you may come in now."

~*~

After hearing the permission Dumbledore gave them to enter, the Marauders walked into the room, slightly uneasy.  James looked up to see Harry stare at Remus, "Professor Lupin!  What are you doing here?"  James and oSirius sniggered at that.

"Hey Moony, you didn't tell us you were a professor!"  oSirius cried.

'That's exactly why I didn't tell you, I knew you'd react that way!"  Remus blushed slightly.

"Oh, look at that, you're blushing!"  oSirius exclaimed.  Sirius just shook his head, having already known that Remus was a professor.

James stared at Harry.  Harry's eyes flew from Remus to Sirius, and then his eyes landed on him.  Those green eyes, just like his Harry's, just like Lily's…

James was lost for words, _what do I say, he's my son_ but he's not!  He has never even met his parents, I mean, Lily and I.  Would he accept me as a father figure?  Why would he?  He doesn't even have parents, and just because I'm a counterpart of his father, that wouldn't mean he would accept me straight away just because he never had a father.  Oh heck, what am I going on about?__

James smiled slightly and decided what he was going to say, "hi Harry," gave a slight wave of his hand, "how are you feeling?"

~*~

After Harry's proclamation of Remus' status as a professor, the other-world Sirius and James had laughed.  Harry smiled slightly at these antics, noticing that this world's Sirius just shook his head, then his eyes flew to the two Sirius' _how could I have not noticed that the other Sirius looked different?, and finally, his gaze found James and stayed there.  He didn't know what to think.  _This is my dad… __

James stared back at Harry, and smiled, "hi Harry," he made an awkward gesture with his hand, which looked sort of funny, "how are you feeling?"

The feeling in the air was awkward, and Harry noticed that Remus and the Sirius' have stopped bickering and were silent for the reunion.

"Uh, I'm feeling okay I guess," Harry couldn't think of what to say.  This man was his _dad, but he wasn't.  It was just too different.  But different from what?  He'd never had parents, can't this man just be his dad, even for a while?  In a sense, this man was his dad anyway, so what do children say to their parents?_

The silence dragged on for a while, and the spectators just sat back and watched.  oSirius and Sirius silently made a bet on who would be the first to break the silence.  

This moment of silence was an opportunity, Harry decided that he should take this opportunity and apologise for his earlier accusation, "I'm sorry I called you a Death Eater," he said quietly.

~*~

That wasn't one of the things that James thought Harry would say, he had thought Harry would say something along the lines of, "I miss you" or "I _do_ look like you!" or "why is your hair always so messy?"  Because an apology was the last thing he expected from his 'son' in this situation, James couldn't help but laugh.

"That's okay!  If I was a Death Eater though, think of all the havoc I'd cause.  For one, don't you think it'd be amusing if the Death Eaters couldn't take off their masks, and those hideous masks of theirs had been charmed to look like clown masks?"

oSirius laughed at that, "that _was what we were planning to do the next time we came across a group of Death Eaters."_

The tension in the room seemed to have decreased as everyone laughed along.  After the little laughing session, Harry and James found it easier to speak to each other.

"But I'm sorry I reacted that way…"

"There's no need to be sorry.  So, you're in fifth year and in Gryffindor, just like my Harry this year, what's your favourite subject?"  That was an opening line that James _had _thought of earlier but had thought it would sound corny in the awkward silence.

"Well, most of the time it was DADA, but that depends on who the teacher was," Harry looked at Remus and smiled, and Remus returned that smile with a wink.

James raised his eyebrows, "and what would you mean by that?"

Harry gestured to the seats in the hospital wing, "would you like to take a seat?  This might take a while…"

~*~

AN: I'm sorry, I'll have to end it here for now!  I think that's my longest chapter yet!  This part was difficult to write.  I'm not sure if it flowed well or not, as I went back and changed some parts.  I wanted oSirius to find out what happened with this world's Sirius, but I'm not too sure if the reaction I made him have was realistic enough.  I seriously don't want him all guilty-guilty over it too much.  I tried to make his reaction deeper, but I wasn't sure how to do that.

  I also tried to make the meeting between James and Harry longer and more 'lasting', but I wasn't sure how I could do that either.  Hope this turned out okay though.  I may not update for another week or two, so stay tuned!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer:  HP belongs to JKR, I'm just borrowing the characters for a little bit of entertainment.

AN: I know I said that I might not have been able to update this week, but to my luck I actually found time to finish the chapter!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: pretty beauty, hpdigigal (I'm surprised that my writing had that effect on you!), EK Kropp, riser155, oneiros lykos, Melissa (thank god I've got the character's in character!), Little House Girl, Potters^Lover, LittleEar BigEar's sis, Felion, Jeswin, . (I think I mention what Harry tells James in this chapter), smile7499, GoldenRose, Kalista, and Relle.

Potters^Lover had requested longer chapters.  Unfortunately, longer chapters would mean a longer wait, and I'd like everyone's opinion.  Do you prefer a longer chapter and longer wait, or short sort-of-regular updates?****

To Kalista, I think that Harry and Remus were pretty accepting as they live in the magical world and are used to strange things happening.  I really respect an honest opinion and am glad that you gave me yours, but please be reasonable.  If you found reading the first chapter a chore, then don't go reading the rest and telling me that reading each chapter was a chore.  And as for the fact that you found it boring (I'm still surprised that if it didn't draw you in and was boring, that you read the first four chapters in the first place), I can't do anything about it, as I have no intention of changing what I've done.  If you have any suggestions on how I can make it better, and what makes this fic boring, please let me know.  I can't improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  ^_^ and I may take your suggestions into account when I write the rest of the fic.  Also, you asked me to look at the other fics in this genre, it would be helpful if you let me know the titles/authors of these fics so that I could find them.

On a happier note, this chapter is dedicated to Jeswin, whose thoughtful reviews really make my day!

Chapter 5

~*~

Going to speak to a bunch of insufferable muggles was not Snape's idea of a good holiday.  On Dumbledore's orders, however, there was not much he could do about it.

Standing in front of the door of 4 Privet Drive, Snape scowled as he thought of Dumbledore's excuse for not sending any one else, "I'm sure I could send Remus, but today is not a good day for him as it is soon to be a full-moon day, and Sirius is a convicted man, it will be unsafe to have him exposing himself.  That does not leave many others I trust.  Besides, if I sent one of the Weasleys, they'd most probably hex the Dursley's, and we don't want that."

So the job of picking up the brat's belongings fell on Snape, who had the great urge to hex the muggles as well, especially after he had met them and they had cowered from his glare.  '_We don't want that', shouldn't it be more like;' we want that but the stupid ministry forbids?' _or _'we want that but the Potter brat wouldn't have anywhere to stay come the next holidays?'_

_At least if I get his things, he'll have no excuse for not doing homework. _

~*~

~*~

James was amazed.  Harry's life at Hogwarts had been simply amazing! James had a feeling that Harry left some parts out of his tales and was downplaying some of the events, but even so it was amazing!  Facing three-headed dogs, oversized chess pieces, Quirrel, the Polyjuice Potion and Chamber of Secrets,

And this Harry was so polite '_would you like to take a seat?' James couldn't imagine _his _Harry ever saying that to him.  Then again, to this Harry, he was practically a complete stranger._

Harry's story of his third year was as interesting as his first two.  Remus and Sirius took part in some of the telling of it.

"Then one night, Sirius got into our rooms and everyone thought he was trying to kill me because he had a knife."

"Hmph, I can't _believe no-one noticed that I wasn't even at Harry's bed, and I didn't even hurt anyone while I was there!"_

"Sirius, I think everyone was in the heat of things.  You were the 'Big Bad Guy', so even if you showed up in a tutu everyone would think that you were trying to do something to Harry," Remus had sighed.

Remus and Sirius; it was no wonder they looked so worn out, after all they had gone through.  If this world's James and Lily died, it meant that everyone thought Sirius was the secret-keeper and Peter, traitor that he was, would either have been killed by Sirius, landing him in prison, or everyone would have been after Sirius, to put him in prison.  And it seemed as though in this world, it was the former that occurred.  

In his fourth year, Harry had taken part in the Triwizard Tournament!  The details of the event were brief.  Even if Harry left out a lot of details of his life, James could guess what most of the rest was.  His fame, for instance.  Harry spoke of it several times, but what James heard made him agree with Remus that Harry did not like the fame one bit.  Harry had to stay at the Dursley's, and James promised himself a word with Dumbledore about that.

And as he was thinking along these lines, he remembered his Harry, cheeky and carefree.  It was almost his birthday, he'd have to go back to his world soon to celebrate it…

~*~

~*~

Last night had been purely amazing.  Harry learnt a lot about his father in the span of three hours, and would have learnt more if Madam Pomfrey hadn't come bustling in.  Of course, Harry told James about his life at Hogwarts, but left out the more sensitive details.  He wasn't sure how James would react to Harry being a Parseltongue, what he would do if he found out Harry nearly died on his broom every year, so he just sort of skipped little details like those.  Harry was sure that James wouldn't want to know about his life at the Dursley's, or rather, he would, but Harry wasn't going to share those details with him either.  Harry also didn't mention Voldemort's rebirth at the end of the Third Task of the tournament, maybe he'll share that later, but not now.

Dumbledore had left halfway through Harry's tale, having business to attend to.  But Harry had a feeling that he didn't want to intrude on such a reunion.

After Harry's telling of his story, James had told Harry of his youth and years at Hogwarts.  Now that there were two Sirius' and Remus there, they had been able to contribute animatedly to the story.

It was James' stories of his family that amazed him most, the more Harry listened the more he felt the urge to meet his other-world mother and sibling.  The more he listened, the more he wanted to see his other-world home… Harry felt quite attached to his 'father' already, and had a feeling that his 'father' felt the same way.

The next morning, however, Harry realised something.  He'd been awake for so long, yet his only visitor was Madam Pomfrey, who came in and out several times to check up on Harry and give him his breakfast.  Where were Professor Lupin, Sirius, and his dad?

As he ate his breakfast, his second visitor for the day came in, and this visitor he would rather have not had come visiting.

"Professor Snape?  What are you doing here?"

Snape sneered, "good morning to you too, Potter.  It would seem as though even in the holidays you can't keep yourself out of trouble, regardless of all the effort the teachers here put in to keep you out of danger."

Harry didn't like that tone of voice, and as he wasn't in class he thought it was okay to retort, _we don't lose points during the holdiays, do we? "I did not put myself in danger.  For your information, I got sick over the holidays and the Dursley's weren't doing anything to help me."  Bright green eyes pierced pitch black._

"Hmph, I do not wish to hear your sob story.  Here are your belongings.  You are to complete your homework before the school term starts, just like all the other students.  Have a good day."  Even as Snape said that, Harry thought he saw something like understanding in those black eyes.

Snape turned around, cloak billowing behind him, and swept out of the infirmary.  

Harry stared after Snape, he hated that man.  But that was not what was bothering him now, what bothered him was that he had to complete his homework, being at the Dursley's, he hadn't had a chance to read the text-books and begin his assignments.  And Snape's potions assignment was a particularly difficult one.

But that was not the only thing troubling him.  Last night, everyone had seemed happy, and Harry had been hoping to have a repeat experience of that today.  _Maybe they're all tired, I really should finish eating what I can and start on homework.  With a sigh, Harry lifted the fork up to his mouth, again and again._

~*~

Minutes turned into hours turned into days.  With each day that passed by, Harry's health was better and better.  By the end of the week, Harry was allowed out of bed.

During that week, the only memorable experience was Snape coming and yelling at him for ruining his room, which Harry had no idea what it was all about.  Madam Pomfrey saved him, however, by saying that Harry hasn't been out of bed at all since he'd gotten here, and even if he got out of bed, she doubted that redecorating Snape's office would even be on his mind.  Snape had left with a humph, muttering about mutts and wolves.

With each day that passed by, Harry felt more lonely.  No-one had come to visit him.  With Professor Lupin, it was understandable, as it had been full-moon and he probably needed to recuperate from the transformation.  Had his 'father' and oSirius forgotten about him already?  No doubt with another James here, Sirius would have forgotten about him as well.

With no-one visiting him, Harry had completed most of his homework, leaving the worst assignment to last, which was, of course, the potions assignment.  He looked at the Daily Prophet on the bedside table, and picked it up to have a look.  The headline was the death of famous seer Cassandra the XX, descendent of the famous seer Cassandra I.  Other front page stories were an interview with Fudge about the bringing in of new policies, which led Harry to think about what happened after the Triwizard Tournament the year before.  What would fudge do?  He had been unwilling to believe that Voldemort was back, and had been outrageous at Dumbledore's insistence of the truth.

Harry thought back to the short conversation he had had with Dumbledore; Dumbledore had insisted that it was not Harry's fault that Cedric was dead.  Harry understood why people would think so, especially when the situation was compared to Sirius' situation.  However, everytime he thought about it he still felt a pang of guilt.

The date on the paper said 30th July.  Tomorrow was his birthday, would anyone remember it?

~*~

Although Harry was allowed out of bed, he stayed in the hospital wing, in case he was not fully better and something happened to him.  Usually he didn't mind where he slept, having slept in a cupboard for most of his life, but he did mind the fuss that Madam Pomfrey made over him.

This morning, after a long and peaceful sleep, he woke up to a sight he hoped he'd never have to wake up to.  Snape loomed over him, famous scowl on his face and black cloak making a great shadow over him.

Harry momentarily gasped at the sight, and Snape sneered at Harry's shock.

"The headmaster has asked me to take you to buy your school things.  I shall give you twenty minutes in which you are to get changed and come down to the Great Hall," with that, Snape swept out of the room like a great bat.

Harry got out of bed and quickly got changed, not wishing to make the potions master any angrier than he no doubt already was for having to be in Harry's company.  He brushed his teeth, washed his face, and attempted to flatten his hair a little, giving up on it soon after.  

He was distracted by Madam Pomfrey, who rushed in, hearing that Harry was about to leave, and forced some potions on Harry.  After a last minute check-up and the quick swallowing of some awful potions, she left.

As Harry slipped his foot in his shoe, he heard a hoot from the window.

"Hedwig!"

The snowy owl flew to Harry and landed on his shoulder, nibbling his ear affectionately.  Harry had specifically told Hedwig to stay at Ron's over the holidays, suspecting that she would not be treated properly at the Dursley's.  Harry had expected a letter from Ron, but there was no letter or parcel attached to Hedwig's leg.  In fact, no-one had sent him any letters or gifts, not even Hagrid.  Miserable, he gave the owl a scratch on it's head, and Hedwig flew outside again, probably to go to the owlery.

"Potter!  One minute!"  That shriek, he had heard it in potions before, and had totally forgotten about it's existence until now.  He had to finish getting changed, and be quick about it!

~*~

Regardless of the day being clear and bright, with birds chirping away happily and the cool breeze blowing at his hair, going on a trip with Snape would darken any bright day.

Snape had charmed an old orange car to drive for him.  Harry was kind of glad of that, unsure of whether or not Snape actually knew how to drive a muggle car, being all magic.  Snape just sat behind the wheel and stared out one window while Harry stared out the other.  

He thought about the day his father and oSirius came, had they forgotten about him?  He hadn't seen them since the first night he woke up in the hospital wing.  Maybe they're celebrating their Harry's birthday, after all, it was James' son and oSirius' godson.

Saddened at the thought, Harry just stared out the window at the passing homes, all looking neat and perfect with the bright white walls and clean cut lawns.  To Harry's surprise, they were going through a muggle neighbourhood on the way to Diagon Alley.  In fact, _his neighbourhood!  Then there was the Dursley's house, which looked totally out of place._

"What happened to the Dursley's?"  Harry gasped out of surprise.

Snape sneered, "I believe that the mutt and his mate paid them a visit recently."

The house was rainbow coloured, the lawn was black, and in the lawn there was a herd of purple cows.  Harry frowned and said quietly, "they didn't hurt the Dursley's, did they?"

Snape's head snapped around and he stared at Harry with a strange look in his eyes, "no, in a few hours time those cows on the front lawn should change back to humans."

Harry couldn't help stifling a laugh at that, they weren't hurt, merely turned into cows.  He could live with that.  He dearly hoped they would not punish him for it though, and with that thought he began to worry.  They were not happy when Dudley was given a tail, what would they do to him after this ordeal?  Maybe Dumbledore would help perform a memory charm on them.

They drove on for a bit more and Snape muttered a spell that suddenly stopped the car.

"Professor, we're not at Diagon Alley yet…"

Snape opened the door and stepped out, motioning for Harry to do the same.

"This is a different way to make it there," Snape explained.

"Oh," Harry couldn't think of anything intelligent to say to that.

"Turn around," it was a command, and Harry turned around so that his back faced Snape.

"Close your eyes, and do not even open them when you feel a little strange," Harry closed them.

He felt two hands on his shoulders, "don't even try to get away," Snape whispered in his ear, "my Lord will be displeased if he did not get his prize."  Harry opened his eyes as he registered what Snape had said _my Lord... who else could it be but Voldemort?  He tried to struggle, but Snape's hands were too strong and before he knew it there was a strange pulling, and his feet seemed to lift off the ground.  The pull seemed to last a long time and the air around him felt totally different, sometimes hot and sometimes cold.  __We all knew Snape was evil, but Dumbledore trusted him, and Snape betrayed that trust!  I'm dead this time…_

Just when he thought that the pulling had stopped, another seemed to start, but this time it was a pulling behind his navel, it felt just like he was travelling by portkey.

Time seemed to go on forever until he heard Snape's voice in his ear, softer than his usual harsh voice.

"You can open your eyes now."

Harry had not even noticed that he had closed his eyes while he travelled.  Harry slowly opened them, feeling unsure about Snape's sudden change in voice.  Surely he was facing Voldemort again?  What was he to do?  And why didn't his scar hurt?  However, he saw a spacious room full of decorations, colourful balloons magically floating around, likewise the gold and silver streamers were floating around magically, and a large gold banner that floated above the whole room flashed the words _'Happy Birthday Harry!s'._

Harry was shocked, and turned around to see what Snape was up to, only to see oSirius emerging from an invisibility cloak, a wide grin plastered on his face, and Snape's face slowly changing into a familiar one that reminded him of himself.

Sirius and James spread their arms, "SURPRISE!"

"What?"  Harry gasped.

James chuckled, "you seem to find it unbelievable that we would hold a celebration for your 15th birthday, however, Padfoot and Prongs found that it would be normal to hold a celebration for someone special to them."

~*~

~*~

No-one was happy about Harry's living arrangements during the holidays.  After James' first meeting with Harry, he made it clear to Dumbledore that he would do anything to stop Harry from going back to the Dursley's.

Dumbledore was also displeased about Harry's treatment at the Dursley's.  However, he had a good reason for Harry to stay at the Dursley's, "they are blood relation, therefore he is safe from Voldemort there.  Even if he stayed at a wizard family's place, like the Weasley's, Voldemort is capable of getting him there.  Also, Harry would most likely object to staying at the Weasley's knowing that he could endanger them.  I shall speak to the Dursley's and attempt to persuade them to be kinder to Harry…"

_As if!_

~*~

The day after James' first conversation with Harry, he had decided to hold a birthday celebration for this world's Harry with his Harry.  He wanted it to be a surprise, so he wanted Harry to think everyone had forgotten about him, that way it'll be a REAL surprise!

Of course, James had to discuss his idea with Dumbledore, who was all too happy to let Harry be happy for a while.  "Also, Harry would be safe from Voldemort for a bit while he's in your world."

James and oSirius had gone back to their world to discuss it with Lily and his family.  He had told Lily what Harry's world was like, and at the part about Harry being orphaned, Lily had tears in her eyes and she agreed fervently that Harry deserved a happy birthday.

His children had seemed excited about seeing a person from another world, and James decided it was better that he tell them that Harry was orphaned rather than having them question Harry themselves.  James left out details of how Harry was orphaned, and specifically told his children not to question Harry on such a sensitive topic.

The pranksters discovered that they had enough magic to take one person with them at a time, and during the week they took Remus and Sirius to their world.

James remembered clearly the conversation that Sirius and he had had before they took Sirius to their world.

~~~

"You blame yourself, don't you?"

oSirius had promised to accompany Remus during the full-moon days in the Shrieking Shack, and that left Sirius alone with James.  They were in one of Hogwart's guest rooms, and his question bounced off the stone walls.  James was sitting on a stool at the desk, and Sirius had been lying on the bed, trying to catch a quick nap.

The question came to Sirius unexpectedly, he sat up laughed uneasily, "what are you talking about, James?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, and you know I'm serious because you didn't call me 'Prongs'.  When we're having a happy conversation, I'd appreciate it everyone stayed happy.  But here you are brooding every ten or so minutes."

James was answered with silence which could have stretched on forever.  The air in the room seemed suddenly stuffy as Sirius contemplated what James said, Sirius finally seemed to make up his mind about talking, "it was my fault that James and Lily died, and that Harry had to grow up with those awful muggles."

"Fine, I'll admit, a small part of me blames you for going after Peter rather than look after Harry, and if this world's James could see you he'd probably say the same thing, but you did not deserve Azkaban for that, and if you felt you deserved punishment, you were punished more than enough in Azkaban."

Sirius looked from the floor up to James.  Their eyes met, and James saw Sirius' eyes were slightly glazed as though he was about to cry.

"No matter how long I sat in Azkaban, it would never bring them back…" a tear slid down his cheek and James did what was natural for him, he over to the bed, sat down, and gave Sirius a warm embrace.

"Ever since I escaped from Azkaban, I thought I would escape from my ongoing nightmare, that James and Lily would come back.  But escaping from Azkaban made me sane again and made me realize that they would never come back, and I see it everytime I look at Harry.  I see James, and I know that it was all my fault…" with a shoulder so close by, Sirius sobbed into it, finally letting out his tears as he had not been able to do while hell-bent on vengeance or stuck in a cold place surrounded by Dementors.  He cried as though a dam had broken.  He breathed raggedly as though the stuffy air in the room was not enough to feed his lungs, and the ice that had surrounded his heart melted with the heat that was the company of James.

James had some tears in his eyes by now, and his heart contracted with Sirius' howls of pain.  He didn't like to see happy-go-lucky Sirius all teary and depressed, he did not like seeing anyone like that, but seeing Sirius like that only made it worse.  He patted Sirius on his back, "you realise that whatever punishment you receive, James and Lily would never come back.  Yet you still punish yourself…"

"Because it was my fault!"  Sirius sobbed.

"It wasn't your fault, it was Peter's.  And you know what?  You shouldn't blame yourself because it wasn't your fault, no one blames you.  And trust me, _I'd know what James thinks, and he doesn't blame you."_

Sirius pulled back and stared at James, then he chuckled slightly, "what would James say if he saw me crying like a baby now?"

James pulled Sirius into a tight hug again and rubbed circles on Sirius' back, "he would say that the past is the past, and if you really respected your friendship with him, you would remember your happy times for the sake of remembering them, and try not to be sad while you do.  If you really respected your friendship with him, you will live on without blaming yourself for something out of your control, you could not have known Peter was the traitor.  If you really respected your friendship with him, you gotta stop blaming yourself and live on, Harry needs a parental figure in his life who isn't wallowing in self-guilt all the time…"

~~~

That speech had been good for Sirius, and he seemed a lot happier after that.  Sirius really needed a break, he was getting too serious (no pun intended), it wasn't becoming of him.  To say that James knew Sirius well was an understatement; James knew that the conversation eased some of Sirius' guilt, but would not take it away entirely, _at least he's not as enthusiastic about giving himself mental punishment anymore.  Hopefully he won't revive his guilt every time he sees me or Harry_.

A few days before Harry's birthday, they took Sirius to their world.  The day after, they took Remus.

oSirius had a run-in with Snape when they got back from taking Sirius to their world.  James hid behind a suit of armour just in time, and Snape and oSirius had a little insulting match, as was the tradition.  Snape was as greasy and sarcastic in this world as he was in the other, he noticed.

After the run-in, oSirius had an idea how they could _really_ surprise Harry, so when they were sure they saw Snape going off to who-knows-where in the Forbidden Forest ("probably to associate with his family of vampires" was oSirius' silly remark), they snuck into Snape's dungeons and found Snape's disgustingly oily comb (as oily as your hair can be, you still gotta brush it).  While they were in there, they also discovered some hidden bottles of a familiar looking potion which turned out to be already brewed Polyjuice Potion (compliments of Barty Crouch Jr.), which saved them having to buy the very expensive already brewed potion from a potions store.

And so, the day of Harry's birthday, James had, to his own disgust, drank the potion with Snape's hair in it and become the exact duplicate of Snape.  It took oSirius about ten minutes to stop laughing and making remarks about how his hair was now so oily a fly would probably slip if it landed on his head.  To Sirius' remark, James had, out of habit, ran a hand through his hair, only to have to wash his hand afterwards.  The two of them went to the Dursley's home and quickly redecorated it for Harry's viewing, slightly curious to how Dumbledore would react if he went to talk to the Dursley's, but somehow knowing that Dumbledore probably knew what they did anyway.  Sirius slipped under the invisibility cloak, muttered a muggle-repelling charm to ensure that no muggles would see the disappearing man and boy later on, and waited at the magical point while James went to pick Harry up.

James and oSirius had slipped some sleeping potion into Harry's dinner, and when James got to the infirmary, he found Harry asleep like a baby.  They needed to make sure Harry didn't wake up while James transfigured Harry's gifts into a pebble to take with him to the other world.

James had muttered 'Enervate' and stood prepared over Harry's bed.  Harry had not seemed very pleased to see him, and James was not surprised, seeing as how he looked like the greasy potions master at that moment.  If anything, Harry looked surprised, and sad.

James had charmed a car to drive for him.  The trip was in silence, while Harry was no doubt brooding over the fact that he didn't get any presents, until they passed the Dursley's home, to which James thought Harry would have been pleased to see.  However, Harry was worried that the blasted muggles were hurt.

James reassured him that the Dursley's would be fine, and was glad to see Harry's face break into a smile and his hand reach up to cover his mouth as he stifled a laugh.

James suddenly stopped the car and saw Harry look around the muggle neighbourhood.

"Professor, we're not at Diagon Alley yet…"

How observant, "this is a different way to make it there," James quickly lied.

"Oh," Harry got out of the car and looked around again, as if expecting to see some sign of magic.

"Turn around," James commanded.

"Close your eyes, and do not even open them when you feel a little strange," 

oSirius stepped forward, still under the invisibility cloak, and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder while James placed a hand on his other shoulder.  If he wanted to surprise Harry, he had to do it this way, "don't even try to get away," James whispered in his most menacing voice, "my Lord will be displeased if he did not get his prize."  Harry's body tensed for a moment, then Harry tried to struggle, but oSirius and James were a lot stronger than him.  James and oSirius silently uttered the cross-dimensional travel spell, and were pulled through the void that was the space between two worlds.  When they reached their world, James touched a timed Port Key which immediately took them to James' home.

James took his hands off of Harry's shoulder, as did oSirius, and he looked at Harry's face.

"You can open your eyes now."

The look of utter surprise on Harry's face was priceless.

oSirius and James spread their arms, "SURPRISE!"

"What?"  Harry gasped.

James chuckled, "you seem to find it unbelievable that we would hold a celebration for your 15th birthday, however, Padfoot and Prongs found that it would be normal to hold a celebration for someone special to them."

Harry looked as though he was about to cry, and indeed, tears sprang to his eyes which he quickly wiped away with the back of his hand.  James and oSirius both took Harry in their arms and gave him a big hug.  Sirius stepped out from nowhere and gave Harry a big squeeze, and even Remus was there and gave Harry a gentle hug.  Then out of a side door stepped Lily.

AN: That's all for now!  Again, I went through and added some bits, so I hope it flowed okay.  In the next chapter, which should be out next week or the week after, Harry enjoys a birthday (I won't make it too long though, as I'm dragging this on long enough as it is) and then Harry begins his school year.

  Don't forget, longer chapters longer waits, or shorter chapters shorter wait!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: All of it belongs to JKR, and I'm not making a profit so please don't sue ^_^.

AN: Sorry for not updating for 2 weeks! To make up for it, I've tried to make this chapter a little longer than my usual chapters. I know that several people have replied that they preferred regular updates and short chapters, but I can't really manage the weekly updating due to study requirements. This will be the only update you'll get for the next few weeks as I will be going away for a while, and hopefully after that I can update once a fortnight at least.

Thanx for all reviews, they really do keep writers going. I'm actually surprised I got 100!

As there are two Remus', Sirius', and Harrys, the ones from the other world will be called oRemus, oSirius, and oHarry. 

This chapter is dedicated to Melissa, who's almost always the first to review my chapters, and has reviewed every chapter (if memory serves me right), thanks a lot, it's greatly appreciated! And to Arizosa, my 100th reviewer!

Chapter 6

~*~

Harry stared at the woman who had walked in. His heart beat stopped and his breath caught in his throat as he stared at her. There was not much difference between the real thing and his photos, even though she was fifteen years younger in them. She had long flowing red hair, and those green eyes staring back at him were exactly the same as the ones he saw in the mirror every time he cared to look. The frown etched on her face was one that reminded him of the photo of her with the Marauders when they were pulling a prank on one of her friends. He couldn't think of a thing to say, there was a feeling of awkwardness similar to that he felt the week before with his father, and silence reigned in the room as they stared at each other as though contemplating what they should say.

Lily seemed to wake up from her state. Tears sprang to her eyes and she swept up to Harry and embraced him in a tight hug.

"Oh Harry! You poor thing! I heard all about your world, I'm sorry we're not there for you!"

Harry hugged her back, and let his tears flow freely. He wanted to tell her that she had nothing to be sorry for. He was amazed how many times he had received such a loving hug in the past few hours, it was a lot more than the number of times he had received hugs in his whole lifetime. But this hug was special, this hug was received from his mother. The warmth comforted him greatly, he had dreamed this moment for a long time. The hug, the warmth, seemed to make the awkwardness dissipate in the air as he buried his head in her shoulder and she in his. He opened his eyes briefly and saw his father put a hand on Lily's shoulder.

"Now now Lily, we want this to be a _happy_ birthday, and right now you're causing the other occupants in this room distress."

Harry looked at the other 'occupants' in the room, oSirius had a kind of bemused expression on his face, having gotten used to the idea of the other dimension and it's differences. Sirius and Remus stared at Lily as though they were seeing a ghost.

Lily drew herself back and brought a handkerchief to her face, dabbing at her eyes. She patted Harry on the shoulder and smiled tearily. She then noticed the looks that Sirius and Remus were giving her and turned on them.

"Oh, stop staring at me like that, the last few days of staring were bad enough, I thought you'd be over it by now…"

At that moment, Harry heard the sound of multiple footsteps approaching them.

In the door burst a young girl with red hair swept back into a high ponytail. She could not have been more than 10, and had a nice face. Beside her was a person who looked very similar to himself, except that this person had a slightly bigger build and did not look underfed like Harry did.

The two Harrys stared at each other, and the girl stepped forward and exclaimed, "you must be the other Harry! What's that thing on your head?"

Harry's head whipped around to the girl and his mind whirled with ideas of how he should answer her. Before he opened his mouth, James stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Honey, you should introduce yourself first, Harry doesn't even know who you are. You shouldn't even be surprised at people from other dimensions, you've already seen Sirius and Remus."

"How long have Sirius and Professor Lupin been here?"

"About three days, and I'd prefer it if you stopped calling me professor, as I'm no longer your professor. You can call me Remus or Moony," Harry noticed a slight smirk on oHarry's face when he mentioned that Remus was a professor.

The little girl said, "my name is Magnolia, in this world I am your younger sister. I'm 9 years old," she turned to look at James, an annoyed expression on her face, "why do I have to introduce myself? Doesn't Harry have a sister in his world?"

Harry looked at the girl again, a younger sister…

James' face paled slightly, "honey, I already told you that this Harry was orphaned…"

Magnolia brought a hand up to her mouth, "oops! I forgot!"

oHarry took a step towards Harry, "and I guess I don't need to introduce myself, Harry. Well, what should I say then," he looked at the ground as though thinking of what he should say, then he looked up and looked into Harry's eyes, green mirroring green, a grin on his face, "I guess Happy Birthday."

Harry grinned back, albeit little awkwardly, "Happy Birthday to you too."

~*~

Apparently, the party was just a family affair. James had planned it to be a small party in the first place, as most of oHarry's friends were on holidays, and the last few parties had been so big that Lily had not been too pleased with the amount of clean-up afterwards. Sure enough, magic did a lot of the work, but some magically induced mess was a little more difficult to get rid of, especially those that were alive. So only family (and family included all the Marauders) were invited. Besides, it would not do to have any more people learn about cross-dimensional travel than necessary.

During the first part of the evening, Magnolia had conversed greatly with Professor Lupin, oSirius sitting in with them and on occasion asking Professor Lupin about his world as well. 

"Why did the other Harry call you 'Professor'?" Magnolia twirled her red hair between her fingers as she stared at Remus with her large eyes.

"Yeah, you never told us why you taught, and just for one year," oSirius put in.

"You see, I taught Harry in his third year…"

"What did you teach?" Magnolia asked.

"Well, I taught Defence…"

"Dark Arts? But you're a Dark Creature, wouldn't that mean that you were teaching students how to destroy you?" The girl was full of questions, and she looked totally shocked at that revelation.

"The students were not quite up to that standard…"

"Then why didn't you stay longer to teach them up to 'that standard'?"

It seemed as though Remus was getting slightly impatient with never being able to complete a sentence, and oSirius sniggered at his expression. It seemed as though Magnolia did not want the details to the answers, just the short answers themselves. 

"So what games are we going to play tonight?" Talking about teaching and learning was not her idea of a good night, and Magnolia changed the topic completely. It was a party after all, and there was bound to be a lot of good games to play.

Meanwhile, oHarry and Sirius were comparing pranks. oRemus came late and was dressed in the exact same clothes as Remus, just as both Sirius' were dressed the same in a hopes of confusing everyone present. He was drawn into their conversation.

"Did your father tell you about the attacking soap?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"Yeah, they charmed the soap and shampoo to follow Snape around and say he needed a wash. I even tried that again in my second year, but Snape figured out it was me anyway and gave me a load of detentions. I tried to clean him again in my third year, putting a bucket of soap water above a door so that he'd get soaked when he opened the door, and I also charmed some cleaning utensils to help him out…" oHarry looked totally proud of himself.

"It was my luck that I was in school at that time and was on my way to collect some potions from him when I saw him with a head full of lathered soap. Of course, I summoned oHarry's camera and took a photo. Do you want to see?" oRemus piped in.

"Yeah, of course! If you have any good ones, can I make copies to take back with me?"

"Sure! We've got some other photos of when we got McGonagall with the honey and flour trick. There are some photos when we charmed some chains to attach themselves to Binn's feet, that was a difficult one as Binn's a ghost, but we managed. Oh, and the one where oSirius was chasing Trelawny in his dog form, she was shrieking her head off! And with the help of some magic, we were able to reproduce that awful sound and place it into the photo…" oHarry began listing off other pranks that he had pulled, and Sirius suggested some other ones that he never got to carry out, certain that his Harry would not carry on with his life's work. oRemus reprimanded him playfully, saying he was meant to be mature by now.

Harry realized the awkward tension between the people from his world and this other world had diminished due to the similarities between them, and the other world's people's relaxing attitude helped ease the tension also. Of course, Harry had been nervous about speaking with his parents, still in a little shock about seeing his 'sister' and other self. 

Harry had stared at his mother's counterpart, and she stared back. They both smiled awkwardly, and the both of them looked a little teary-eyed.

James stood there staring from one to the other, and then punched the both of them in their shoulders.

"Ow!" They both exclaimed in unison.

"My God, you're alive!" James exclaimed in an overly enthusiastic voice.

"You could've just felt my throat for a heart-beat, that hurt!" Lily said loudly.

James gave Lily an apologetic look, then turned to Harry, "Harry, I'm sure that you did not catch a snitch staring at it. I'm positive the same principle applies here; you will not get to know Lily by just staring at her."

Lily rolled her eyes, "great, now I'm compared to a snitch…"

"It's the most important ball in the game. Besides, Harry's a Seeker," James grinned.

Lily looked a little surprised at this.

Watching this interplay, Harry couldn't help bursting with laughter; two of the people he most wanted to meet his whole life were here in front of him, and they were both happy. 

James had made it easier for Harry to converse with him and Lily, and as before, the laughter eased the tension, and Harry overcame his shock. He began to shoot millions of questions at James and Lily about their world. Of course, these people were practically strangers to him, and he was most curious about what these two people were like, and asked them anything and everything about them. He wanted to know how they grew up, how they met each other, and even what sorts of food they liked.

"You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family, which is quite unfortunate. I am not fond of speaking badly about someone, but I have to agree with you, Harry, she _is _normal to an obsessive state," Lily was discussing her family, after hearing Harry give a brief description of his stay at the Dursley's, "I remember when I got that Hogwarts letter, she fainted dead away when the owl flew into the room with a letter attached to it addressed to me. After I found out I was a witch, she never treated me the same again, not to mention we did not get along particularly well in the first place…"

"Can we play some games now?" Magnolia interrupted, a little rudely. She had apparently tired of asking Remus questions, and was eager for some entertainment.

Lily turned to her and smiled, "maybe a little later, dear. It is Harry's party, and they both seem to be occupied at the moment…" she gestured to oHarry, surrounded by both Sirius' and Remus' with his photos, and Harry continued their conversation about family with James, talking about the Dursleys. ("You should see that fat lump they call Dudley… I wonder if he's as fat in this world? You should have seen what Hagrid did to him the first time they met…")

Magnolia looked sulky, Harry noticed and broke off the conversation with James and looked at her, "it's okay… mum… (Lily had insisted he call her that) we can talk all we want later, let's play some games."

She smiled instantly, and looked at her mum, "can we play 'Pin the Bludger on the Seeker?"

"What's that?" Harry wondered aloud what sort of magical game it was.

Magnolia looked at Harry as though he was dumb, "don't you know what it is? Do you know 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey?" Harry nodded. "Well, it's the same thing, only, the person who pins the bludger on the most painful or sensitive parts win."

Harry stared at her wide eyed, "uh, okay, let's play that." _Why does it have to be a Seeker? Couldn't it have been a Chaser?_

~*~

It turned out that Lily still enjoyed carrying out the muggle traditions in the home, so they played muggle game after muggle game. The Seeker in the 'Pin the Bludger on the Seeker' looked eerily like Harry himself, and if a person came too near to it with the bludger it always tried to move, but couldn't because one of the Marauders would have their wands pointed at it. Remus had won the game, pinning the Bludger where it hurt the most. Magnolia had not been happy and sulked about it, so Remus gave the prize (a Quidditch Memorial picture frame, with animated flyers in the frame) to her. This display of sportsman-ship uncomfortably reminded Harry of Dudley.

Other games they had played included 'Apple-Bob' (where you have to try to pick up an apple in a bucket of water with your mouth), and some other children's games for Magnolia which the adults also enjoyed like 'Musical Chairs' ("that's not fair! Sirius charmed the chair to move!") and 'Celebrity Heads' ("Who made me Cornelius Fudge!?" "Well, Padfoot, Severus Snape would have been too easy to guess").

Quidditch was a must, and with Harry, oSirius, Remus, and James in one team, and oHarry, Sirius, oRemus, and Magnolia in the other, they played a game in the large back yard. Of course, both Harry's were natural flyers, and it was from James that they inherited that skill. The game was a close one, and it wasn't until an hour later that oHarry caught the snitch, just before Harry did. Harry enjoyed watching his counterpart; at first, it was a little uncomfortable seeing himself, but having gotten used to the idea, it was fun watching this happy boy joke around, and it had been amazing seeing how good he could fly, he finally understood why everyone was impressed with his flying.

After the Quidditch game, everyone went back inside, laughing all the way, and sat down at the table full of food that Lily had prepared. After all the games, everyone was starving and dug into the delicious food.

~*~

Everyone ate until they could fit no more in. Lily magically cleared the tables away and two large cakes and party hats appeared in front of them. Everyone grabbed a party hat, and when Harry put his on, a heap of cream fell down his face.

"Oh…" Harry brought his hands up to wipe his face. He took of his glasses and wiped them off on his shirt. He couldn't think of what to say…

"Hey, Harry couldn't wait for the cake and tried to stash some away in his hat!" oSirius hadn't had much of a chance to speak to Harry and had decided that this was a good way to make him happy. Harry had been glad to see this world's happy oSirius, and as happy as the day was, his patience was being tested with this much less mature version of his parent figure. However, what he saw next made him laugh. oSirius had been laughing along with Magnolia when he brought a party popper up and aimed it in the air. He pulled the string, and a mixture of honey and dough came pouring back onto his face. That brought laughter from everyone. oHarry turned to Harry and held up his hand, Harry high-fived it and grinned. With a roll her eyes, Lily flicked her wand and cleared away the mess and replaced all the party accessories with safe ones.

The candles lit automatically, while the lights in the room switched off and everyone began to sing:

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear HARRY (AND HARRY!) Happy birthday to you!!! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray!"

"Why was he born so beautiful, why was he born at all? Because he had no say in it, no say in it at all!"

Harry, who had never had an actual party with an actual cake with candles, made the most of it; he made a wish before he blew out his candle. Both Harry's extinguished their candles at the same time. They both cut their cakes, careful not to touch the bottom, and Lily began giving out the pieces to everyone. The lights were switched on again.

"Yum, cake!" Magnolia cried, and began filling her face up.

"Did you make the cake this year Lil?" oSirius asked.

"As if James would make it…"

"Hey! I do so help make stuff sometimes…"

"That you can't eat," oRemus sighed.

Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement, and Remus said, "I remember when we went away on a camping trip during the summer holidays once. James burnt all our food…"

"And if it weren't for smart Moony here," Sirius patted Remus on the head, "who brought along some canned food and extra rations, we would never have survived…"

"Hey, that happened in our world too! And what do you mean, 'we would never have survived', we were only out there for two days!"

"Cake, people?" oHarry interrupted.

"Oh, Harry! Open your presents, I want to see what you got!" Magnolia looked at the pile of presents.

"That reminds me," James took the pebble out of his pocket and turned to Harry, "I took these while you were still asleep." He transfigured the pebble back into the presents, and Harry looked at them in surprise _no wonder I didn't get any presents this morning…_

"Well, open them!" Magnolia was bouncing up and down in excitement.

oHarry turned to his presents and opened them, one by one. Harry was pleased to see that both Ron and Hermione were friends with oHarry, and oHarry had received Quidditch related supplies and books from them. oHarry also received presents from oRemus and oSirius (which were mostly prank-stuff) and from some muggle friends who lived a few blocks away named Adrian and Thomas. The muggle boys had gotten oHarry a variety of cds, which oHarry seemed to be very happy about. Personally, Harry had never even heard of those bands before. Remus and Sirius had gotten him a large container of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean and Chocolate Frogs which could last him a lifetime. Magnolia had given him a red and gold scarf that she had knitted. James and Lily had gotten him the first edition of 'Quidditch Through the Ages', which had a golden hard cover which sparkled magically, and came with a set of autographed Quidditch balls.

oHarry looked up and Harry, looking happier than ever "okay, it's your turn now."

Harry picked up the top-most present. Sure enough, from Hermione he received a book, titled _Everyday Curses and Hexes: How to cast, block, and avoid_, there were some interesting looking hexes he considered trying out on Malfoy when school started again. The letter that came with it read:

__

Dear Harry,

How are your holidays? I hope the Dursley's are not treating you too badly…

The letter went on to describe her holiday, which sounded a lot better than his had been.

"Is the Hermione in your world a bookworm too?" oHarry asked when he saw the present was from Hermione. Harry grinned, and oHarry continued, "is she a little obsessive about 'Hogwarts: a History' as well?" Harry laughed at that, and oHarry joined in.

Hagrid had sent him an amulet on a necklace. The stone was emerald green, the exact same shade as his eyes, and was supposed to have the power to protect the wearer.

He got cakes and some wizard tricks from the Weasley's ("whoa, can I look at those?" exclaimed oHarry and oSirius), and from Ron he got a mini Quidditch set with a mini Quidditch field and mini Quidditch players, good for practicing in strategic thinking. 

__

Hi Harry,

Your strategy needed some working on, so I thought you'd like this…

Ron, being an expert at chess, was naturally a good strategic thinker.

The next parcel was from Sirius, and surprisingly it was also from Professor Lupin, a combined effort. The wrapping was very plain, and the parcel was light and small, making him wonder what it could be. He looked up at them, and they smiled and nodded. He ripped open the paper and inside he saw himself, staring back at him. It was a little mirror! But not just any mirror, there was a piece of paper inside that said, _'you can carry this mirror around to make sure there isn't any dirt on your face, in case Skeeter is around to take a photo…'_ Harry looked up at them, Sirius had a goofy grin on his face and Remus rolled his eyes. Harry continued to read the note, _'no really, it's a Foe Glass, and this is a very powerful one, it can detect your foe within a 1 kilometre radius, and when they are within a 50 metre radius you can begin to see the whites of their eyes. It's designed so that you can carry it with you, and alerts you when enemies are detected. Padfoot and Moony'_

Harry was staring at the glass, there was no-one in it at the moment, which was a good sign. A 1 kilometre radius was pretty big, probably the moment he stepped back into his world the mirror would be full of people trying to get to him. Harry smiled gratefully at the two of them, and they winked back.

"We know that you'll need that…" Remus began

"Because so many people are so jealous of your beautiful hair that they want you gone!" Sirius ended, ruffling Harry's hair, making Harry laugh.

Surprisingly, oRemus and oSirius had gotten Harry the same thing as Remus and Sirius had gotten oHarry, which was a large container full of sweets. He decided that Ron could have half of them once he got back to his world.

Magnolia hadn't been sure what to give Harry, and in the end he received a black knitted glasses pouch with a golden letter 'H' from her. Harry assumed that both oHarry and James had received something similar, as the looks on their faces showed pure amusement. 

It was evident whom the last package must be from. James had Lily's hand clutched in his, and stared at Harry as though silently willing him to open the present.

Harry picked it up. The package was small and light, and the wrapping had a colourful pattern on it. As always, he carefully opened the present, trying not to rip the paper too much. He had noticed before that oHarry did not seem to care if the wrapping paper was preserved or not. Harry, however, who had not lived with a lot of luxuries, wanted to keep such beautiful wrappings.

He pulled the wrapping away to reveal a wooden box with intricate carvings that greatly resembled a phoenix and a dragon on it. The wood was polished and smooth, and even though it was just a small beautiful box, Harry could swear that there was some magic being emanated from it.

"Come on, open it," Lily said softly.

All eyes were on Harry, and he felt nervous with all the attention. It seemed as though the room was silent, awaiting the opening of the box which would reveal something truly fantastic. Harry slowly opened the box, not really meaning to prolong the suspense but feeling that with such a small box care must be taken in handling it. When the box was opened fully, he saw the inside of the box was lined with red velvet, and there was a rock of a similar size to the amulet that Hagrid had given him. Harry picked it up. With the light shining on it, he could see that it was a deep purple colour. Everyone in the room stared at it in awe; most of them didn't know what the rock meant.

"Mum, dad, isn't that a bit unfair? You got my older brother a wonderful book and yet you give this Harry, who is supposed to be your son, a rock?"

James turned to her, an excited expression on his face, "this is no ordinary rock! It has the ability to communicate with whoever holds it's partner."

"Isn't that just like a walkie-talkie then?" Magnolia frowned.

"What's a wonky-tonky?" oSirius looked to James.

"A walke-talkie is a muggle communications device that uses the transmission of radio signals, a form of electro-magnetic wave to send the signals," Lily explained, "however, muggle electrical appliances do not work in Hogwarts because there is too much magic in the air. These stones, however, do."

"Lily and I will keep one of them, and the other one is for you, so that when you go back to your world, we can still communicate."

Harry looked at everyone in the room. oHarry looked happy for him, and Magnolia looked as though she still didn't quite understand what the electricity in Hogwarts thing meant. The Remus' and Sirius' also looked happy for him, and Harry could see some tears in Sirius' eyes. His 'father' and 'mother' looked on expectantly, waiting for a reaction. He couldn't help it, the tears came unwantingly, and again Lily drew him into a hug.

James and Lily did not need to hear the words, but Harry had them ready on his lips.

"Thank you," Harry whispered.

~*~

Magnolia had an early night, as it was past her bedtime already. Remus and oRemus went off to play some Wizards Chess, while Lily cleaned up. The Sirius' and James sat in the corner, loudly playing Exploding Snap, and Harry finally had a chance to converse with oHarry. After the events of the evening, all the games and fun they had, Harry found it easier to be relaxed with his counterpart around, as strange as it might have been. oHarry didn't seem the least bit phased conversing with Harry, probably because he had grown up around magic and other weird things, and had lived an easy-going life, he was quite relaxed around Harry.

"So what's it like living with a sister?" Harry and oHarry were relaxed on the couch.

"Well, it's alright I guess. I mean, Mags can be a little spoilt, but at least she respects us older people. We get along okay, but that spoilt attitude can really get on my nerves sometimes. She's also a little on the selfish side…" 

Harry absorbed this; if he had a sister in his world, then she would be spoilt and selfish, he wasn't sure he could live with a person like that, Dudley was bad enough… 

"Enough about Mags, you'll get to know her soon enough, she's the loud type, full of questions, always curious. Anyway, what sort of pranks do you usually play on Snape?" oHarry asked excitedly.

"Uh, I don't play pranks…"

"What do you mean you don't play pranks?"

"Well, I do get in trouble with him often, but I don't mean to…"

"You say that as though I mean to get into trouble," oHarry grinned.

Harry grinned back, "well, you probably deserve it after whatever pranks you pull on him. Is he as bad in this world as he is in our world? He totally hates me, and he would favour the Slytherins to a sickening extent, and even if we get stuff right he'd take points off or something."

oHarry nodded, "yep, same Snape."

Snape wasn't a topic Harry wanted to discuss for the rest of the night, so he decided to change the subject, "so do you play on the House Team?"

"Of course I do, or else I'd shame the Potter name!" Harry couldn't help giggling a little at the little rhyme, and oHarry noticed it too and laughed openly, "I play Seeker on the Gryffindor House Team, I've been playing since first year…"

~*~

The party had been one of the most wonderful things that had ever happened to him, and ranked up there with his other happy moments such as finding out he was a wizard, or watching the Quidditch World Cup. No doubt a Dementor would be no match for him, now that he was loaded with a heap of happy memories. Harry had at first been a little peeved off at the manner in which he was brought to this other world, as it had greatly reminded him of the Triwizard Tournament, and Snape wasn't Harry's favourite person. However, his happiness at seeing his parents by far surpassed his anger.

It was early morning, and Harry couldn't get to sleep. He had slipped out of the guest bedroom and found his way to the kitchen where he helped himself to a glass of water. He took the glass with him and went to sit outside. The night was warm, and, grabbing a broom, Harry flew onto the roof and lay down, placing the glass precariously on a tile jutting out next to him. He stared at the velvet blue sky with pin-pricks of light that were stars. He could hear some night creatures, and occasionally an owl hooting, it was peaceful.

He thought of the day that had just passed; he had finally found happiness, or did the happiness find him for a change? oHarry had been nice. Although he was cheeky and a bit of a prankster, oHarry had been mature when in conversation with Harry, and was sensitive enough not to ask about how his parents had died, maybe he would when they got more used to each other. Somehow he felt a little like Harry expected a brother would, as that was the way Harry felt with Ron. Magnolia was a slightly different case; she had reminded him a lot of Dudley, and he concluded that she was a little spoilt as she was the youngest. The way she acted slightly annoyed him, but he tried not to let that get to him as today was one of the happiest days of his life

He was glad that Sirius had looked a lot healthier than the escaped convict he first met in his third year, it even seemed as though Remus had less lines on his haggard looking face. They really deserved to be happy, after Wormtail's betrayal had caused them so much suffering.

oRemus and oSirius were pretty much the way he thought they would be. The Marauders all got along like brothers, and it was fun to watch them joking around and having fun.

Harry closed his eyes and thought about his parents; they were just as gentle and caring as he had imagined them to be. Sure, technically they weren't his parents, but as he reminded himself over and over, they are practically his parents anyway. They even allowed him to call them 'mum' and 'dad', and in the span of one day it felt as though Harry was part of a family again.

~*~

James and Lily lay side by side in their large bed. It was a warm night, and the open window let in a cool breeze that fluttered the curtains.

"It was a great party, wasn't it?" James asked, sliding his arm around Lily's shoulders.

"Yes, everyone seemed happy, and Harry looked as though he was having the time of his life."

"Well, he didn't really have a good life at the Dursleys."

Lily's eyes hardened, "I still can't believe he had to stay with them and that everyone thought Sirius would betray us." Lily couldn't think of anymore words to express her disbelief, then she sighed, "the other Harry is so mature, I'm not saying that our Harry is not mature or anything like that, it's just that our Harry is so cheeky, yet the other Harry isn't."

"He's been through a lot, let's just hope that by staying here he can at least forget his past…"

"I've always wondered what would have happened had Peter not been discovered to be the traitor, I mean, it was by pure luck that you caught sight of his Dark Mark. At least Harry survived…"

"Shh! Did you hear that?" James placed a finger on Lily's lips and looked to the door. Lily nodded silently and strained her ears. They both heard the soft footsteps descending the stairs. Was it one of their children?

They looked at one another and silently agreed to go out and see who it was. Getting out of bed, they both went downstairs but didn't see anyone.

"Maybe they went outside?" Lily wondered aloud.

So the two of them went outside and heard a soft clatter on the roof. James summoned some brooms, and James and Lily flew up.

They saw Harry lying on the roof, his eyes closed. There was no mistaking that this wasn't their Harry as this boy was slightly smaller in build, and was skinnier too. They flew over to where Harry was laying down, and settled down on either side of him. He opened his eyes.

~*~

Harry felt before he heard the presence of the other two people. He opened his eyes when they landed on either side of him, and saw that it was his parents. They smiled down at him.

"You're gonna get a cold if you sleep out here," Lily said softly.

"Worst yet, the owls might decide to deposit some droppings on your sleeping form," James chuckled.

Harry sat up and gave them a soft smile, and then he decided to ask them what's been nagging him.

"Why did Voldemort want to kill me?"

James and Lily looked taken aback, Lily gasped, "didn't Dumbledore tell you?"

Harry shook his head, "he said I'd find out when I was old enough, when I was ready…"

"I'm sure Dumbledore had his reason for that," James looked a little uneasy.

"But you knew that Voldemort was after you, therefore you must know why!"

"Harry, Voldemort was after a lot of people. At that time, a spy discovered that Voldemort was after our family, therefore we went into hiding," Lily explained.

Harry looked down, as he had expected, they either didn't know or didn't want to tell him. He then said softly, "then why didn't Voldemort want to kill you?"

"Huh?" They both looked confused.

"When I go near Dementors, I hear my mother and father before they died. Voldemort only killed my mum because she wanted to protect me. If she had given me over, he would have let her live. Why did he want to kill _me_?"

He was answered with silence, "see? If it hadn't been for me, my parents would still be alive…"

James had heard a similar speech before coming from Sirius, and he had realised that he would hear one of these speeches from Harry, "Harry, it is not your fault that we're dead in your world, never think that. It is Voldemort's fault that we're dead."

"But if Voldemort hadn't wanted me dead, then you'd both still be alive in our world…" tears welled up in his eyes, and he brought his knees up and hugged them.

Lily put and arm around him, and James did the same thing. "Harry, no-one blames you. You were a mere baby, and you shouldn't spend your life feeling guilty," James began.

"I know that your parents wouldn't want you wasting the life they gave you feeling guilty," Lily gave Harry's shoulder a squeeze.

The two of them listened to Harry's sobs for several minutes, unable to bring themselves to stop him. They knew a cry could really make one feel better. When his sobs seem to begin to cease, James lifted Harry up and plopped him on his feet.

"I know we aren't your real parents, but we _are_ your parents, if that makes sense. And from what we've heard, we're proud of you, and we don't blame you for anything," James ruffled his hair.

Lily dabbed at her eyes a little, and held Harry's hand and gave it a squeeze, "even if we died because Voldemort was after you, we died for someone we loved, and you survived, we couldn't have been happier than that…"

Harry nodded. Sure, he still felt guilty, but at least his parents didn't blame him.

"Well son, you should have an early night, we're going to see Dumbledore tomorrow, you don't want to look like a zombie to see the headmaster!"

~*~

AN: Well, that was really REALLY rough, and it's most likely I'll change the ending to that chapter a little as I had planned it to be a little longer and more deep, although I feel I'll have trouble doing that, I'll attempt it when I post next. Also, it was a little similar to that speech James had with Sirius, so I wondered if it was alright? Anyway, I think that part was necessary for further H/J/L interaction in the future. Also, I didn't want to drag the party on too long. Hope you liked it anyway.

I'm still a little unsure of what sort of character I want Magnolia to be. I got the name from my friend Cici by the way, I'm hopeless with names. Thanx for the suggestion Cici! I wanted Magnolia to be a little spoilt, as I didn't want Harry feeling too bad about missing out on a little sister, but apart from spoilt I'm still not too sure how to characterise her. I thought having her being full of questions but hardly interested in a detailed answer would add a bit of humour though, and because I've done that I might not make her character too deep.

oHarry's a prankster, growing up with the Marauders would do that to you. But because he's the oldest in the family, and his parents are essentially good people, he's gonna be mature and sensible when it's needed, and a prankster at all other times. I had wanted to give him a nickname as well, but I couldn't really think of one, and so didn't put one in. If someone suggests one that I like I may add it into this chapter and following chapters, but I really don't want to get into the other world characters too much as we won't be seeing a lot of them once the plot actually starts. See ya in a coupla weeks!


	7. chapter 7

AN: Hi peoples!  Thanx for the reviews!  I know this chapter took forever, but I hope the length will satisfy you!  I truly marvel those authors who could write long chapters and update regularly!

Thanks to:

Melissa (I'm glad that my writing could have that effect on you, it means I'm doing SOMETHING right with my style!), Nightswift (that's a good idea, but I don't think that oHarry would appreciate being hunted down if he traveled across dimensions, I will consider it if I ever write a sequel), Spellotape, Jasmine Black (I'm glad no one's getting confused about the names!), Relle, A-man, E.K. Kropp, kateydidnt (thanx for your review, James and Lily know the brief version of Harry's history such as they are dead in his world, what year he's in etc. I don't think Harry'd be too keen to talk all about how his life at the Dursley's were awful and that he's almost died every year at Hogwarts ^_^), Arizosa, Rhiain, Clarista, SndReAmer, and lunablue (thanx for the idea for the nickname, I'll be sure to use it!)

This chapter is dedicated to Relle, I've been reading your story and I love it so far, I sent you an email but your box was full!  Next chapter please!  (Who am I to talk!?), and to E.K. Kropp, who, if memory serves me right, has updated every chapter.

Disclaimer: Everything minus plot belongs to JKR.

Chapter 7

~*~

Harry woke up to the sound of loud shouting coming from downstairs.  Groggily, he rubbed his eyes and reached for his glasses, placing them on his nose and making his way to the door to see what all the fuss was about.  Maybe Dudley was about to be forced to go on another diet.

Making his way downstairs, the voices grew louder and louder.  To his utter surprise, one of them he recognised as the usually gentle voice of his father that had been distorted to an angry shout, and the other was a younger female's voice.  As Harry remembered that the events up until now were not a dream, he guessed that it was Magnolia, the spoilt little sister that he never had.  

"You PROMISED that you'd take me to Florean Fortescue's for ice-cream today!  And now you tell me that you'll be going out with the OTHER Harry instead!"

"I NEVER promised you anything!  I just suggested it, but now that the other Harry has come here, Dumbledore has requested to see him and I will need to go with him!"

"But I want ice-cream!"  Again, Harry was greatly reminded of Dudley.

"Now Maggie, I'm sure your father can take you to eat ice-cream tomorrow…" that was Lily's voice.

"Dumbledore is a very busy man, and if we don't see him today we are not sure when the next occasion we get a chance will be.  You can eat ice-cream everyday after this if you want!"

"All you care about is the other Harry, you don't care about me anymore…" Dudley used to pretend to be very upset in order to get what he wanted.  Harry wondered if Dudley's tricks would work on his parents?

"Honey, that is not true, your father loves you very much…" Harry could picture his mother hugging a distraught looking Magnolia.

"He has a strange way of showing it…"

At that moment, Harry heard footsteps behind him and saw oSirius coming down the stairs, fully dressed.  The Marauders had stayed the night.  oSirius was probably used to hearing such arguments in the mornings.  Their eyes met, oSirius' was questioning, and Harry just shrugged his shoulders.  oSirius walked past him and into the kitchen where the argument was taking place.  Harry thought he should make an appearance as well and walked silently into the kitchen behind oSirius.  oSirius swept up to Magnolia and lifted her up.

"What's the matter Doll?  Another early morning?" oSirius asked casually.

"Daddy doesn't care about me anymore!  He only cares about the other Harry, who isn't even his real son!"  She glared in Harry's direction.

James and Lily hadn't noticed Harry enter and whipped around to face him.

"Er, morning Harry," James muttered, looking anxiously at Harry, probably afraid that Harry would take that last comment to heart.

"Good morning Harry, would you like to sit down for some breakfast?"

Harry returned a smile and shook his head, "um, I might actually get dressed first."  Harry turned and hurriedly left the kitchen.

~*~

Similar to Harry, oSirius had woken up to the sound of shouting, and he was well aware of who the voices belonged to.  He got out of his bed and made his way to the showers, wondering if the shouting would be over by then.  After a quick shower and brush of his teeth, he realised that the loud voices still went on, and he made his way downstairs.

He was a little surprised to see Harry standing at the doorway, probably too afraid to go in.  Harry turned around and oSirius raised a questioning eyebrow, to which a shrug of shoulders was returned, and oSirius swept into the kitchen and made his way straight to Magnolia and lifted her up.

oSirius looked at the girl in his arms.  She was as cute as ever, with the flowing red hair and the bright eyes, just like a doll (hence his pet name for her).  However, oSirius had always known that she was on the spoilt side, and had always wondered how she could become that way.  James and Lily were good parents, and oHarry had turned out fine, but how did Magnolia get so spoilt?  Maybe it was to be expected of the youngest in the family (and maybe not, I know from personal experience!).  oSirius didn't want a fight in the family, and therefore he made an offer.

"Doll, how about I take you for your ice-cream?"

Magnolia's face brightened, "Really?"

"Yeah, really!" oSirius plopped Doll back on the ground and walked towards James, who whispered fiercely, "but Sirius, you were supposed to come with me to see Dumbledore!"

 "Do you want that girl to never forgive you?" James looked like he was about to protest that she wouldn't hold that grudge against him, but oSirius continued, "besides, you can go with the other Sirius and Remus, all they were going to do today was explore this world, and they could do that any time they wanted before the end of the holidays."

"But Dumbledore was going to assess our ability to travel across dimensions and see how far our magic could take us!"

"I'm sure Dumbledore could use the other Sirius, who is practically me anyway…"

James looked like he was about to argue when Harry walked into the kitchen with Sirius and Remus.

"Morning everyone!" Sirius and Remus chanted.  Harry, standing next to them, just rolled his eyes.  He looked around; Magnolia was smiling happily to herself at the table and Harry assumed that she had somehow won her argument (probably with the use of tears, which are a girls' best weapon), Lily seemed pleased that the argument had concluded and was cooking some bacon, James and oSirius stood to the side and looked as though they were discussing a matter of great importance, which was probably the next prank they wanted to play on hapless ministry members.  There were two people missing.

"Where are Harry and Remus?"  He asked the whole room.

oSirius faked a look of shock, "kid, Remus is standing right next to you, and, you're Harry!" he exclaimed.

Harry rolled his eyes again, and James stepped forward, "our Harry wanted to have a lie-in today, and I think he had planned to go to the local library to look at some books in the afternoon, Remus had a previous appointment with some other people in the ministry to discuss some research they had been doing."

Harry nodded.  He had found out that oRemus was working in the Ministry of Magic in the field of Magical Creatures: Dark and Light, to which his first-hand knowledge was invaluable.  James and oSirius were 'on-call' Aurors, they needed to apparate to places in which help were needed when they were called.  As being an Auror was a dangerous job, they were well paid, even when the attacks have thinned out, they risked their lives whenever they were called and therefore deserved the payment.  As there were not many attacks as of late, with oRemus' help, they had infiltrated the Ministry Building on multiple occasions and brightened up the Ministry Wizards' dull lives.  And also due to the lack of work, James and oSirius were able to commit their time to the study of cross-dimensional travel, even though James was committed to his family and oSirius to his frequent date Sara (whom Sirius looked forward to meeting so that he could find their world's equivalent after his name's cleared).

Lily finished the bacons and everyone sat around the table.  His mother was a teacher at the local Muggle school that Magnolia attended, and even tutored some magical children in the field of charms in the evenings.  He briefly remembered his trip to buy a wand, when Ollivander had mentioned something about his mother's wand being good for charms.

Everyone discussed the days' plans: oSirius was taking Magnolia to Diagon Alley for some icecream, James, Sirius, and Remus were taking Harry to see Dumbledore, Lily was going out with some girlfriends, and oHarry was staying home for the day.

~*~

The house was eerily quiet.  oHarry opened his eyes slowly and looked at the clock, it was 11am, still too early to wake up.  However, try as he might, he could not get back to sleep, the reason being that he was thinking too much about the events of the day before.

He remembered his counterpart, who had a smaller build than him and was more serious than he was.  Of course he'd be more serious, he grew up with a bunch of Muggles who hated wizards and he never knew his family.  oHarry didn't ask Harry too much about his life with the Muggles, well aware that it was a sensitive topic.

oHarry got out of bed and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.  He looked in the mirror; yes, Harry looked a lot like oHarry, the same messy hair, with the same green eyes.  However, oHarry didn't have a scar marring his forehead.  oHarry was not sure where Harry could have gotten it, but guessed that it had something to do with Harry being orphaned.  And although they both had the same green eyes, oHarry realised that Harry's had some sadness in them that oHarry did not possess.  Was it because of the life Harry had led?  Somehow, oHarry felt close to Harry, maybe because they were the same being.  He felt a brotherhood with Harry.

oHarry pondered all this as he brushed his teeth.  He went to get changed and went downstairs for breakfast.  After helping himself to what his mother had left for him, he grabbed his cd-walkman from his room, and made his way outside, locking the door behind him.  Today he would look at some books at the library.  Tonight he would begin a new adventure, and maybe Harry would like to take part in his adventure as well…

~*~

James had conjured a red baseball cap for Harry to wear, not wishing for people to see the scar on his head.

"They'll just think you're our Harry if they can't see the scar and don't realise the fact that you're a little smaller than him."

And so oSirius, Magnolia, James, Remus, Sirius, and Harry sat on the Knight Bus which took them to Diagon Alley.  To Harry's amazement, both Stan and Ernie still operated the Bus, and Ernie's driving in this world was no better than the Ernie in his own world, almost running over a total of 297 landmarks and 134 live creatures by the end of their trip.

oSirius and Magnolia got off at Diagon Alley, heading to Florean's, and Sirius made a quick stop to get a wand at Ollivander's, claiming that he had lost his.  Ollivander provided him with a suitable wand, and he hopped back onto the Knight Bus.

After a rocky ride, they were in Hogsmeade.  Sirius insisted on buying some Zonko's products to redecorate Snape's office to match the one in his world, and how was James to resist such an idea?  After selecting some premium prank products, the four of them made their way to hire some carriages to take them to Hogwarts.

The trip was mostly uneventful, and after the carriage delivered them right up to the front door, they let themselves in.

As to be expected, Harry found that it looked exactly the same as the Hogwarts in his world, the same stone walls and the same marble staircase, and Harry felt again as if he was home.

"Well Harry, I'm sure you know how to make it to Dumbledore's office on your own?"  James suddenly said.

"What?  I thought that you were coming with me?"  Harry looked confused.

"Well, Moony, Padfoot, and I are paying a quick visit to Snape's office before we go to see Dumbledore, and I'm sure Dumbledore is most eager to see you out of all of us here, right?"  Padfoot nodded vigorously, Moony just smiled, and Harry wondered why they wouldn't ask him to come along.  Of course, James didn't want to mention what some of the products they got were, which included some R-rated products.  They had no intention of corrupting this innocent version of Harry.

"Uh…"

Sirius put a hand on Harry's shoulder and took him to the side, "Harry, I know you want to spend a lot of time with us, but this is a little special.  I haven't been a Marauder in such a long time, and just having the three of us, it'll be like the old days, do you understand?"

Harry understood immediately, and nodded.  His godfather had been stuck in Azkaban for 12 years, 12 years without any happiness, surely he deserved to relive his school years for just a moment.

Sirius felt a bit guilty using his unjust imprisonment to stop his godson from coming with them, but what he said was partly true.

So the four of them separated ways, and the three Marauders promised that they wouldn't be more than ten minutes.

Harry made his way up the stairs alone, making sure to jump all the trick steps, and tracing the familiar way to the headmaster's office.  Every suit of armour and every portrait was exactly the same as in his world.  He thought about Sirius, who looked happier than he'd ever seen, even happier than at the end of Harry's third year when Sirius was looking forward to freedom.  Even Professor Lupin seemed to have less lines on his face.  Harry forgot to ask what became of Wormtail in this world, and made a note to ask Dumbledore about it when they met.  He wondered briefly what the Marauders were going to do to Snape's office, and remembered how his Snape had reacted when they redecorated his office.  No doubt once school started again his Snape would give him an extra hard time for it…

Lost in his thoughts, Harry walked into someone as he turned the corner.  Harry, being a lot lighter than the other person, fell on his backside.

"I'm sorry!"  Harry hurriedly exclaimed, "are you okay?"  He looked up to see the face of Neville's nightmares _maybe I didn't need to ask that, I'm the one on the floor, not him…_

Snape looked a little shocked at seeing Harry, then the famous sneer returned to his face, "well well, if it isn't _Potter," he spat the word, "somehow I doubt that you are sorry and that you are genuinely worried if I am 'okay' after this most unwanted run-in.  And what would you be doing at school during the holidays, planning to plant a prank so that the Welcome Feast can go off with a 'bang'?"_

If Harry thought his Snape hated him, this Snape must hate oHarry even more because of all the pranks that oHarry played.

"No sir, I'm here to see Professor Dumbledore," Harry replied, a little unsure of how he should act.  He stood up off the floor and brushed himself off.

The reply surprised Snape, who had probably expected some smart remark or other, and then Snape took in Harry's Muggle clothing and the cap.  There was something different about this boy.

"I do not trust you to make it to the Headmaster's office without blowing something up, therefore I will take you there myself," Snape was in fact afraid that Harry would do something to his office, and he made a gesture for Harry to walk ahead of him, "and you are to take your hat off, did your parents not teach you to not wear hats indoors?"

Harry seethed for a moment at the comment, but decided that it'd be better if he caused less trouble.  So he walked in front of Snape and took his hat off, glad that Snape wanted Harry to walk ahead of as that way Snape couldn't see his scar.

The two of them made their way there in silence, only the sound of their footsteps echoed down the corridors.  They were a few corridors away from Dumbledore's office when Snape suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.

"Ow!  Professor, what are you doing?" Harry exclaimed.

Snape glared at the small boy in front of him, "you are not Harry Potter!"

Harry's eyes widened, "what?"

"You are smaller than Harry Potter, Harry Potter never calls me 'Professor' or 'Sir', and Harry Potter is not as obedient as you," Snape's eyes flickered to Harry's scar, "and Harry Potter does not have a scar!  Tell me, who are you and what do you intend to do to Dumbledore?"

Harry didn't know what to say.  They had intended to keep the cross-dimensional travel secret, considering how such information could cause the destruction of several worlds if it fell into the wrong hands.  And those hands weren't necessarily just Voldemorts, what if everyone wanted to see their counterparts or were not pleased with the world they lived in?  Having people roam the world was enough, not to mention other worlds.  If the road to other dimensions were open to everyone, then there would be utter chaos.  Harry hadn't thought that Snape would notice anything different, but maybe Snape had studied oHarry close enough (in order to avoid intended pranks) and knew all of oHarry's features and habits.  Harry's smaller height must've been a dead giveaway to an oHarry expert like Snape.

"I'm not going to do anything to Dumbledore!"  Harry ended up saying.

Snape sneered, "of course you're not."  He conjured some ropes that tied themselves around Harry's wrists.  Still with his wand pointed at Harry's head, he pulled up the sleeve of Harry's left arm to see… nothing.

Not fazed in the least, Snape walked behind Harry and poked Harry's head with his wand, "stay ahead of me, and don't try to pull off any tricks, surely you don't want a hole in your head?"  The question was more a statement.  Harry knew that he'd be fine once they found Dumbledore, so he began to make his way to Dumbledore's office with the wand poked in the back of his head.  Let's just hope that Snape wasn't trigger happy, or, should he say, wand happy?

Harry walked up the corridor and stood in front of the gargoyle.  Snape cast a charm so that Harry couldn't hear a thing, and the next moment the gargoyle jumped aside and Snape lifted the charm.  They stepped onto the moving staircase, and when they reached the door, Snape knocked three times.

"Come in!"  Dumbledore's happy voice was heard.

Snape turned the doorknob and Harry walked in ahead of him.  Dumbledore looked up from his papers and looked slightly amused at what he saw.

"Severus, you are back again!  Was there something you were not pleased with?"

"Albus, you know perfectly well that I could not defy the arrangements you made for my dungeons to be used as your temporary bowling alley so that you could practice your skill at rolling a ball until the start of the school term.  I have run into this Potter imposter, and thought you'd be most interested to interrogate him.  I believe that he is a work of Voldemort's in an attempt to infiltrate this school!"  In the excitement of his speech, Snape poked Harry's head several times with the wand, causing immense pain in Harry's head at that point.

"I must praise your efficiency in capturing possible enemies, now if you could leave him with me and I shall 'interrogate' him," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, and he gestured for Harry to come forward.  Harry looked around and saw Snape looking a little confused, but Snape didn't say anything in protest and made his way out of the office, not before sending Harry a death glare.

The office looked the same as always, with the same little magical gadgets and the same phoenix on the perch and the same headmaster sitting behind the desk.  Harry's eyes landed on Dumbledore and he saw Dumbledore beaming at him.

"I am sure you would be more comfortable if you could have a seat!"  Dumbledore said, and with a wave of his wand, the bonds on Harry's wrists disappeared and some very comfortable looking chairs appeared.  Harry rubbed his wrists and sat down.

"I believe there is no need for introductions as we would have been well acquainted in your world," Dumbledore's eyes moved up and down Harry, studying him carefully.  Harry smiled a little awkwardly.

"Harry, there is no need to be nervous.  I am quite sure that in your world I did not make you nervous.  How shall we begin?  There is a lot I would like to know about your world, as I am sure there is a lot that you would like to know about ours.  However, I would like to know where your escorts have wandered off to?"  Dumbledore smiled at Harry.

"Well, Sirius, Professor Lupin, and dad have gone to, uh, see if some of their friends are in?"  Harry didn't mean to make his statement a question, but Dumbledore probably knew what they were up to anyway, and his smile grew wider.

"I'm sure that their 'friend' isn't in at the moment, but will be in shortly.  They would be most pleased that they didn't miss him."  Harry nodded, not really knowing what to say to that.

"And you called Remus 'professor', is he your professor at school?"

"He doesn't want me to call him professor, but I'm used to calling him that.  He taught us in our third year."

"Ah, the curse of the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, I believe?"  Dumbledore ventured a guess, and chuckled.

Harry grinned, "it seems as though that would be another similarity between our worlds."

"Indeed, I only thought it possible for my school to be the only one that had trouble filling up one position of our staff!"

"Technically, it still is only your school that has that problem," Harry pointed out.

"Indeed!  You do seem different to your counterpart, you have met the other day?"

"Yes sir, he was an interesting person."

"As I was saying before, I have some questions for you, but I am quite interested in what sort of things you would like to ask an old man?"

_You're not just 'an old man' you're Albus Dumbledore!_  Harry thought, as his nervousness disippated, and then he asked, "what happened to Peter Pettigrew in this world?"

"Ah, the unexpected traitor.  James has informed me briefly of what happened in your world.  In this world, he still follows Voldemort.  Even without his powers, Voldemort has a lot of loyal followers.  Had Pettigrew decided not to follow him anymore, Voldemort's loyal Death Eaters would have hunted him down.  So Pettigrew serves him still.  Whereabouts he is, we are not sure.  No-one has seen him since Voldemort's loss of power."  Harry wondered if Dumbledore knew that the Marauders were illegal animagi, but thought better than to ask in case he didn't know.  There was no desperate need to search for Pettigrew in this world, he was a Death Eater, as many wizards and witches were, but no-one was wrongly framed by him and needed him alive, his parents weren't dead and therefore no-one sought any form of vengeance against him.  But what if Pettigrew used his form to spy?

"So no-one's seen _anything_ at all related to Pettigrew?"

Dumbledore seemed to understand what Harry was implying, "not even a rat.  Everyone knows that Pettigrew is an illegal animagus whose form is a rat.  Do not worry, no-one knows about Sirius and your father, there is no need for anyone to know.  As long as everyone is concerned, Voldemort taught Pettigrew how to become one and he therefore became one illegally.  And there is no fear of them being discovered because even if they were, I will tell everyone that they had my specific permission to become animagi for our mission against the dark."

Harry was surprised that Dumbledore would lie about that, and it must've shown on his face.  Dumbledore laughed, "no need to look so shocked!  I am aware that they had no ill intent when they became animagi, and therefore I allow them to continuing being unregistered animagi.  Now that you have asked a question, may I ask you one?"

"Sure thing."

Dumbledore nodded, "James has given me a brief account of what your life was like and of Voldemort's downfall, I would like to know about it in more detail.  I believe that you are connected to your Voldemort by your scar?"

Being aware that Dumbledore would probably question him about his whole life anyway, Harry again launched into a lecture of his history, being the second time around telling it, it was a lot easier and he was a little more aware of which facts he omitted and which he kept in the first telling of it to James.  He knew that details didn't escape Dumbledore, and therefore hoped fervently that Dumbledore didn't notice when things were being left out.

~*~

Snape (other world Snape) did not know why Dumbledore did not allow him to stay for the interrogation.  Usually Dumbledore preferred to have Snape around for a second opinion when they were speaking of Voldemort-related topics or dark-art-related topics, and no doubt that boy was not Harry Potter and was therefore a product of Voldemort's to try to confuse people.  Then why did Dumbledore make him leave?  What was the significance of the Potter look-alike?

He made his way to his dungeons, which Dumbledore had transfigured into a bowling alley.  He was not very sure what the Muggle game was about, but he knew it had something to do with knocking some things down with the heavy balls, a load of rubbish, really.

As he neared the door to the dungeons, he heard some noises.  Who could be in there?  Was it another one of Voldemort's minions?  With his wand out, he hurried to the door and opened it to see… nothing.

But there was something different about the place.  He noticed that the balls and the bowling pins were not in the same place as he had left them, and there was also a smell in the air… that came from his office.  With hurried footsteps, he made his way to the door and pulled it open, wand outstretched, to see the most horrid thing ever!  If Snape had been a teenage boy, the place would have been an amusing dream.  However, he was not a teenage boy and these… decorations were hardly of interest to him at this point of time.  He growled deeply in his throat as he cast spell after spell to make the decorations disappear and summoned some potions to clear out the acrid smell in the room.  He noticed, however, that every time he muttered a spell to make something disappear, another spell was cast to make it reappear, and he spun around to see an arm protruding from nowhere, and shot a fireball at it.

~*~

James, Sirius, and Remus had done their job in about five minutes.  Remus had contributed some ideas, but James and Sirius, a little more on the immature and enthusiastic side, had done most of the work.  They were about to leave, but the bowling alley was very tempting, and soon the three of them got caught up in the game.  All being fond of Muggle games, the three of them had had practice over the years at bowling.  However, it was obvious that Sirius had not had a chance to bowl in the longest time and he was losing.

"You're even worst than our Sirius, and that's saying something!"  James scoffed.

"At least I beat you in Exploding Snap!"

"That's because yous ganged up on me!"

"Hey guys, one of our alarms went off!"  Remus exclaimed.

"Invisibility Cloak, everyone!"  James took out the cloak and they all scrambled underneath.  To their delight, the person who came in was Snape.  His black eyes roamed the dungeon, passing over the three Marauders under the cloak.  Snape then quickly made his way to his office and opened the door.

The look on Snape's face was priceless, and James quickly took several photos with his Muggle camera.  Snape began to make their things disappear, so Sirius took out his wand and began to make the things reappear.

To their surprise, Snape spun around and conjured a fireball to shoot at them, and all three of them scrambled different ways to get away from the spell, James dragging the cloak with him.  The three of them stood up, and laughed, unable to stop their laughter.

"I should have known it was you three!  Never acting your age, causing trouble when there are more important things to do like capturing Death Eaters.  But no, you three always do whatever you want, disregarding what is best for the magical community!"  Snape snarled.

"That's a bit much, isn't it?  We're still Aurors and capturing evil wizards when we are called, and that is doing something for the magical community," James said through his tears.

Snape pointed his wand at James and scowled, "give me ONE good reason why I shouldn't hex you?"

"Uh, we made your office look better?"

Snape opened his mouth to utter a curse when Remus stepped forward, "please, Professor Snape, we were only joking.  How about we settle it without the use of curses and hexes?"

Snape reconsidered his situation; it was three on one, if they were to begin hexing each other, he was bound to lose.  "What do you propose, _werewolf?"_

Remus didn't seem the least bit fazed by the insult and continued, "we have a game of bowling.  If you win, we will clear your office and will grant you three favours…"

"And if YOU win?"

"If we win, you will keep your office that way for the rest of the year and you will grant US three favours…"

"Is this some sort of trick?  Of course you're going to win, we'll be playing a stupid Muggle game that I've no idea what it is about!  And how do I know you will keep your word?"

Remus looked at James and Sirius, who both seemed to agree with the way Remus handled it, "you have our word, Gryffindor's honour."

Snape was aware of how Gryffindor's could be ridiculously honourable, "we have a deal," he growled.

~*~

Remus and Sirius had wanted James to play, who was by far the best player of the three.  They had a heated but silent conversation, well aware that Snape might be hearing what they were saying.  To their disappointment though, Snape guessed that James was the best player and somehow pinned Sirius as the worst and chose to play him.

Sirius thought this unfair, but then again, it was unfair that they had three players to choose from and Snape only one.

So the game began.

"Come on Padfoot, go, go, go, GO!" it was a gutter.

"Sirius, you don't bend your arm like that when you bowl!"  Remus sighed exasperatedly.

"Try to aim for the middle, not for the side!"  James exclaimed.

Snape sneered, "well, well, maybe you aren't that good after all, I had wanted a challenge…"

Sirius seethed, and Snape stepped forward and bowled.  Another gutter.

The three Marauders howled with laughter, and Snape's cheeks flushed a little as he stepped back and said, "your turn, _Black."_

"Well, maybe I am a bit of a challenge for you after all!"  Sirius howled.

So the game continued, and both being equally hopeless at the game, the points were very close.  Sirius was winning by two pins when Remus suddenly stepped forward.

"Guys, we totally forgot we came to see Dumbledore, we said we'd only be ten minutes and it's been over an hour!"

"Oh no, Harry must be waiting for us!"

The three of them made their way to the door and Snape argued, "what, are you afraid to lose?  If you leave the game, you forfeit!"

"You can tell we would've won anyway, so just forget about it all alright?"  James said as he reached out to open the door.  The three of them rushed out and as they left they heard Snape yell, "what about my office!?" and chuckled to themselves.

Snape thought it was best that they left anyway as it was evident he had not much more skill than Black at the game.  He rolled his ball again to see what his outcome would have been, it was another gutter.

_Wait a moment, did they say they were going to see Harry?  So that other boy was really Harry Potter?_  Snape made his way out of the dungeons, going to see what that boy was all about.

~*~

Harry took a sip of water that Dumbledore had conjured for him.  Dumbledore had been a good audience to Harry's story, making comments at the right moments and asking several questions to verify parts of the story.  Dumbledore had quickly noticed that Harry left something out about the Chamber of Secrets and questioned him about it and Harry decided that Dumbledore wouldn't hold Harry being a Parselmouth against him.

"Most fascinating indeed!"  Dumbledore had said.

There were several other things Dumbledore questioned him about, such as about his life at the Dursley's, and about his run-in with Quirrel in the trap-door.  At the end of the story, Dumbledore had picked up several of the things Harry left out, but decided not to question him some of it.  He gave Harry an understanding smile, "you have been a good teller Harry, now are there any other questions that you would like to ask me?"

Of course there were a lot of questions!  If his Dumbledore didn't tell him why Voldemort wanted to kill him when he was a baby, he highly doubted that this Dumbledore would share that piece of information with him.  There was another question, he felt, that was more important than the others, "yes sir, how did you take Voldemorts powers from him?"

Dumbledore sighed, "I did not take his powers away from him, I simply locked them up inside of him.  He is like a safe now, without the right key or combination, he cannot open up the door to his inner powers.  So the power is still inside of him, he just has no way of knowing how to tap into that power once again.  There is a risk of him finding out, but the only person in this whole world who knows what that key is, is me, so the risk is very minimal."

"If you could find a way to lock away his powers, couldn't someone else find that as well?"

"You would be correct there, Harry, however, this spell is one that I myself have created after I have sighted one similar to that in some ancient scrolls in my possession.  And there is no way that anyone else can see those scrolls as they are locked away, safe, in a place that only I know.  In fact, your Dumbledore would know of this place as well as it is a family secret.  I am sure that once your Dumbledore sees these scrolls he would be able to work out how to cast the spell."

"Um, why should you go through all that trouble?  You can just tell me what the spell is…"

"And risk you going off to cast that spell?  I think not!"

"Why not?"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment as he pondered how to answer that, and Harry wondered if you had to be a very powerful wizard to cast such a spell, or if Dumbledore did not think Harry had the ability to cast such a powerful spell.

"I will not lie to you, Harry, a spell that captures a wizard's magic and locks it up requires a lot of power.  If a wizard was to cast it, a lot of their life energy would be drained and it could mean death.  That is one of the reasons why I do not wish for you to know the spell, as you or anyone else you tell may be tempted to try to cast it.  I have no doubt that you would attempt it, from what you have told me of your life it would seem inevitable that you are the one who will cast the spell if you had the ability.  The other reason is that if I told you straight out what it was, what if you were captured and forced to share the secret?  I will not allow the risk for something like that to happen."

Harry remained silent.

"I do realise that your Dumbledore has the most need for this spell, and I will therefore give you the details of where the similar spell can be found…" as he was about to finish, there was a knocking on the door, and three figures burst in.

"Sorry we're late!"  Sirius panted.

"Yeah, we, uh, got a bit caught up!"  Remus made up the explanation.

"You see, we met up with a friend we haven't seen in a long time, so we had to do a bit of catching up!"  James put in.

Dumbledore smiled knowingly and gestured for them to sit down on the chairs he just conjured.

As they sat down, James looked at Harry, "hey kid, sorry we're late!"

Harry grinned, guessing that they met up with Snape, "that's okay, I just finished telling Professor Dumbledore my life story."

Dumbledore nodded, "and I was just about to give him a message for the Dumbledore in his world that will allow his Dumbledore to lock away Voldemort's powers."

The three Marauders nodded, their breathing slowly returning to normal.  They all leaned forward.

"Tell your Dumbledore this: 'In our volt, Aberforth's candles right'."

"What?"  The other four in the room exclaimed.

Dumbledore chuckled, "that is the reaction I wanted, I do not want any of you guessing how to get to the spell and therefore learn to cast it, I am sure your Dumbledore will feel the same way, therefore only he will understand where these clues lead."

Harry had known that Dumbledore was a genius, and genius' think alike, therefore it is only likely that his Dumbledore will know what the clue meant.  Remus looked as though he was deep in thought, and James and Sirius looked at one another and shrugged.

"Now, for the true purpose of your presence, I will like to assess your ability to breach the gap between worlds.  James, if you could please step forward…"

Snape burst into the office right then.  Not knowing any of the secret passages, he took longer to get there than the Marauders.  In his anxiousness, he forgot to knock and just let himself into the office.

"James, please step forward!"  Sirius exclaimed at Snape.  Harry stifled a laugh with his hand, James scowled at Sirius, and Snape gave them all a confused look before his eyes landed on Harry.  He stepped towards Dumbledore.

"Albus, what is the meaning of this?  This boy is clearly not Harry Potter, yet these… men… said that he was!"  Harry noted that Snape seemed to refrain himself from being rude in the face of the wise wizard.

Dumbledore gave Snape a piercing look, then sighed, "I trust you will keep this exchange confidential?"

"You don't even need to ask," Snape said.  Harry was aware that his Dumbledore trusted his Snape greatly, and he thought about the end of the third task, what did his Dumbledore ask Snape to do? 

"James and Sirius have discovered a spell to promote cross-dimensional travel," Snape glared at the aforementioned men as though it was their fault that a lot of trouble was bound to happen, "this Harry is not our Harry, he is a Harry from another world."

Snape stared at Dumbledore for a while, then his eyes flew over to Harry seated on the comfortable-looking seat.  Harry squirmed a little as Snape scrutinized him.

"We do not wish for anyone else to find out that such means of travel is possible, think of all the havoc that would ensue if everyone began to travel to different dimensions!  Today I have asked them here to assess their abilities, and they shall return to their own world once the school year starts."

"They?  I thought Harry Potter was the only one who's from another dimension!"

Dumbledore chuckled, "in fact, there are currently three people in this room from another dimension."

Snape looked around, Sirius and Remus waved to him.

"Now Severus, you may stay to observe the assessment, or you may leave, if you so wish."

Snape stood still for a moment, and then went and stood in the corner, obviously wishing to satisfy his curiosity.

"Now, as I was saying, James, please come forward…"

James stood up and walked to the middle of the circular office.  Dumbledore muttered a spell that hit James in the chest.

"Now think of your relationship with Sirius.  You are both aware that your friendship, or brotherhood, is great.  The colour your aura becomes will indicate the magic that your friendship holds.  Keep in mind that not all ordinary friendships create such magical bonds.  Other things can be the cause of magical bonds, such as Harry and his scar."

Harry looked down at his hands.  Did that mean that if Harry wanted to travel across dimensions in the future then he would need to enlist Voldemort's help?

James closed his eyes, and a bright red aura began to appear around him.  Harry looked at Snape, for once Snape did not have a hateful expression on his face, Snape stared at the aura in awe.

"Excellent!  Now Sirius, if you could step forward and stand where James is, James, please return to your seat."

Sirius hurried forward, then frowned, "Professor, I'm not sure if it'll work for me.  It was the Sirius of your world who achieved it with James, not me."

"I understand your worry, but you share a great friendship with James also, do you not?  Not to mention that you and our Sirius are the same people anyway.  Just try, close your eyes."  Dumbledore cast a spell on Sirius.

Sirius had been more afraid that his years in Azkaban would affect the outcome of this assessment, but decided he didn't want to indulge in such information in the presence of the greasy potions master.  He closed his eyes and to everyone's amazement, the aura around him also turned a bright red.  He opened his eyes and briefly, and seeing the red aura around him, he hopped up and down excitedly.

"It worked!"

Dumbledore chuckled, "as we can see, they both feel very strongly about each other.  Now if you could both come forward and hold each other's hands and do the same thing," Dumbledore leaned forward to have a good look.

James and Sirius did as they were told, and the aura around them became a glittering gold, and Dumbledore clapped his hands together.

"Brilliant!  The gold indicates great magic, great power, in the bond.  If the two of you so wished, you would probably be able to not only travel to the dimension next to ours, but to dimensions even further away!"

James looked excited at that prospect, but Sirius looked a little uncomfortable.  He had his freedom in his world to worry about, all James had to worry about was adventure.  Both Harry and Remus noticed the different reactions, and Remus stepped forward and put a hand on both their arms.

"That's great!  But I think that knowing about two different worlds is confusing enough…"

Sirius looked to Remus and gave a grateful smile, James didn't seem the least bit put off, "once we defeat Voldemort in your world and capture Wormtail in that world, we can travel to different dimensions to help our other selves!"

Hearing this, Snape snapped to attention, "do you mean that the Voldemort in your world is still in full power?  If so, how can you people all be alive?"

Dumbledore looked at Snape carefully, "yes.  Voldemort lost his powers 14 years ago, and only got them back last year.  In fact, seeing as our Voldemort does not pose much threat at the present time, and considering we already have ourselves mixed up with some of the occupants of the other world, we might as well do the most we can to help them.  Severus, you are an expert in the field of Dark Arts, I am sure that they could use your expertise to their cause."

"And travel with these loonies?  I think not!  Not to mention that the Severus Snape in their world will be able to provide plenty help to their cause already."

"Come on Severus, you will not need to teach during that time…"  Harry had a feeling that Dumbledore really wanted Snape to help them, and that by saying that Snape would not have to teach would imply that Snape would not have to face oHarry and his pranks, and the embarrassment of what the Marauders did to his office, and if this world's Neville was anything like his, it'd be a relief for Snape not to teach for a while.

"I shall consider it…" Snape huffed.

Silence reigned in the room.  Harry was aware that Snape was an expert with the Dark-arts, and that enlisting his help would be invaluable, not to mention they needed all the help they could get with Fudge being stubborn and not admitting to himself that Voldemort was back.  Sure enough, he guessed that Snape was invaluable because his Dumbledore trusted Snape and Snape used to be a Death Eater spy, so he must have been a very cunning person to be able to pull off being a double agent.  Of course, Harry just guessed that Snape used to be a Death Eater because of the events of last year.  Harry stared at Snape.  Snape seemed to be deep in thought, and then suddenly something about his face changed, as though he had come up with a good idea.

"I will help the occupants in the other world, on several conditions…"

There was a groan, and Harry turned to James, Remus, and Sirius.  They looked worried.

~*~

AN: This was getting way too long so I decided to stop.  Wow, that was probably twice as long as my usual chapters!  I had only planned for Harry to see oDumbledore and then have Harry return to his world to start his school year, but with my unexpected plans, that won't happen for another chapter or two.  I wanted to include Snape somehow, the bowling idea was last minute, and so was mentioning that Snape might be travelling across dimensions as well.  I had also wanted some sort of DE attack in this chapter, but that might happen in the next chapter now.

  Anyway, as I mostly make this up as I write, although I do have a few ideas, I am open to any other suggestions, so leave a review or write to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au if you have any.  Oh, you better mention that your mail is fic related in the subject, or else it goes in the bin as junk mail.  See you later!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: all characters (except for Magnolia) and settings (except for oSirius' place) belongs to JKR.

AN:  Well well, even more reviews, how exciting!  Thank you to all reviewers:

**Relle** (wow, that was a pretty long!) **Mystic Queen **(was my chapter up soon enough?) **Jasmine Black **(I thought the image of them bowling was pretty funny myself, I'm glad you liked it as I thought that up in the last minute!) **ShortySC22, Silver Angel, AmyPotter14, Lis, Kateri, Melissa** (you reviewed AGAIN!  And I was just so happy that it was a long one, although not as soon as usual… just kidding!  Is internet working all fine for you now?  I understand how frustrating it can be when the internet always stuffs up, happens all the time with me!  I can't wait until Snape meets James as well, and I'll answer your question in a minute 'cos others might be wondering the same thing) **LittleEar BigEar's sis, Shen** (thanx for the compliments, I'm so flattered!) **risi** (as much of an evil man that he is, Snape has to be one of my favourites as well!  There are so many interpretations of him, and many think he's just misunderstood) **E.K. Kropp, MerlinHalliwell, lizzypadfoot** (I'm sorry, we won't be seeing Ron and Hermione for a while J)**, _and_ Rhiain.**

Thank you lunablue and Relle for the nicknames for the Harry's in my fic.

To answer Melissa's questions about why Snape couldn't recognize that Sirius and Remus were different, well, Snape just saw oHarry at Hogwarts before the holidays, and I doubt it's been a while since he's seen The Marauders, maybe even years!  I hope that sounded plausible!

This chapter is dedicated to LittleEar BigEar's sis for reviewing all my chapters (if memory serves me right!)

Chapter 8

~*~

"I still don't know WHY Dumbledore was so eager to have Snape come with us!" James exclaimed.

"I know he could be of help to Harry's world, but to have US take him there?  And then SNAPE has the nerve to say that he'd come on his conditions, as though we REALLY needed him!" Sirius put in.

Remus shook his head, "it is true that at the present time, the more help we can get, the better, and Snape is aware that his help will be invaluable.  Come on guys, the conditions aren't that bad, we'll survive!"

"Such optimism coming from a dark creature!" James sighed, and Remus frowned at him.

"Be reasonable, we messed up his office in the first place, so he just wanted us to clean up the mess."

"I'm not fussed about that condition, it was the other two that I wasn't too fond of," James said.

"What, one of them being 'Harry Potter will never again pull a prank in my class' and 'the three of you are to do me a favour each'?"

"Harry would understand about not being able to pull a prank, he'd just do them out of class anyway.  But Snape wants favours from us, think of the awful things he could make us do!  He even has our agreement on parchment!"

"I'm sure Snape knows our limitations and will only get us to do something simple," Remus offered with an uncertain smile.  It seemed as though Sirius, more understanding of the reality of his world, did not have as many complaints as oSirius would have.

Harry was aware that having two Snape's might be a good help to their cause, but that did not mean he was happy about it.  It was difficult to tell which Snape had a greater intensity of dislike for him.  After meeting Dumbledore and on his way out, Snape had given Harry another death glare that would have given Neville a heart attack, probably for merely being 'Harry Potter', and related to his arch nemesis, and then swept down the corridors towards the dungeons.

They decided to take the Knight Bus back.  During the trip the Marauders explained what took them so long.

"You see, Snape's dungeons had been transfigured into a bowling alley, probably the work of Dumbledore as Dumbledore loves bowling and used to be the transfiguration teacher, so transfigurating something like that is peanuts to him…" Remus began.  So, that was why Dumbledore wanted Snape gone, he wanted the dungeons to stay that way for the rest of the year!

"So we got caught up in a game, mind, your godfather was losing badly…" James put in.

"Because I haven't played bowling for the longest out of us all.  And then the alarms went off to indicate that someone was coming, and in slides the slimy git…"

"You should've seen his face!  His expression was a mixture of shock, horror, alarm, anger…" James added.

"And he tried to make our decorations disappear…" Sirius made sure not to tell Harry what the decorations actually were.

"And then Snape shot a fireball at us!"  Remus exclaimed.

"Of course, we all had to get out from under the Invisibility Cloak and scramble out of the way.  That git is one dangerous man when angry, but he soon realised he was outnumbered and agreed to a friendly game of bowling…" Sirius didn't want to say that he was chosen, but no doubt Remus and James were going to tell anyway.

"You see, Padfoot here is the worst player out of us all, so Snape somehow realised this and chose to play him," Remus patted Sirius on his shoulder, "Snape is one smart man, he has good sense of self survival."

"But then again, Snape had never played a Muggle game before, and this was totally new to him.  He was just as hopeless, so the game was pretty fair," James nodded.

"Harry, remember this, 'I am better than Snape at bowling'," Sirius patted Harry on his arm.

"Really?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Look at that you guys, you've planted doubt in my godson's mind!  Of course I was better than Snape, I had played bowling before but Snape never had, so that gave me a bit of an edge," Sirius said, elbowing James in the rib to stop him from laughing.

"So who won in the end?" Harry was curious to know how both sides could still be intact after playing a 'friendly' game of bowling.  The animosity between the two sides was infamous.

"Well, I was winning by a bit, but then we remembered that we were late to see Dumbledore, so we just rushed out of there.  So in the end no-one won," Sirius replied.

"If the game had gone on, it was evident we would have won anyway," James said.

"Don't underestimate Snape, that man could surprise you at the least expected of times," Remus obviously remembered the unexpected appearance of Snape in the Shrieking Shack at the end of Harry's third year, "things could seem to be going well for you until 'Snape' just happens."

James looked confused, and Sirius nodded.  Harry just smiled.

~*~

"So how was your day?"  James asked Magnolia.

"It was fun!  You missed out on so much!  We ate icecream, and then we went to the park and I played on the playground with oSirius, and then he changed into a dog and caught the sticks that I threw!"

Harry and Remus tried to keep from laughing when imagining oSirius playing like any ordinary dog.  oSirius and Sirius just frowned at them.

"At least I know how to keep a kid happy!" oSirius protested, putting an arm around Magnolia and looking at James.

"I would have taken her for icecream anyday except today, I already said that!" James argued.

"Oooh, can we, can we?  Can we have icecream tomorrow as well?"  Magnolia ran to James and plonked herself on his lap.

"Sure thing!"  James smiled, and gave her a quick hug, "we can make it a family trip, we'll all go together!"  

At that moment, oHarry walked in, "hi everyone!  Did you have a good day?"

oSirius observed him then said, "you seem to be in a happy mood today young man, what did you get up to?"

oHarry shrugged his shoulders, "oh, nothing.  Just some reading about different animals and stuff," he raised an eyebrow at his father and oSirius, "in fact, I'm sure Harry would be interested in the types of animals I learnt about today."

oHarry looked at both his father and oSirius, who exchanged a quick glance and then nodded.  oHarry seemed satisfied and came up to Harry and grabbed his arm.

"Come on Harry, let's come to my room and I'll show you what I learnt today."

Harry didn't quite understand the significance of the exchange he just witnessed, and shrugged his shoulders, "okay, I didn't have any other plans…"

"But Harry, you said you'd play that new PS game with me today!"  Magnolia interrupted, pouting.

"Mags, I think you got your days mixed up, I said that I'd play with you tomorrow.  Okay?"  Magnolia nodded to oHarry, and then sent Harry a death glare.  Harry gulped under that gaze.

"Come on!"  oHarry pulled Harry up and they both made their way to their room.  When they nearly made it to their room, Harry heard James stopping Magnolia from following.

They went into the room and oHarry locked the door behind him.  He pulled out a pile of books from his backpack.  This action reminded Harry greatly of Hermione.  All the books were about various animal, and Harry wondered at this evident obsession with animals.

"You see Harry," oHarry began, then paused, "it's so strange calling each other 'Harry', did you have any nicknames in your world?"  Harry shook his head, "okay, you can call me Griff, Sirius calls me that sometimes because he was certain I'd be in Gryffindor, you're a seeker, right?"  Harry nodded, "well, I'll call you 'Snitch', how's that?"  Harry just nodded, unsure of what other type of nickname would be suitable for him.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I have done a lot of study on animals over the past few weeks to see what sort of animal most represents my personality and characteristics," oHarry began, "my father and Sirius have promised me a long time ago that the day after my 15th birthday, they would teach me to be an animagus," Harry gasped, "and just before when they nodded, they also agreed that they would teach you as well," another gasp, and oHarry laughed, "come on Snitch, no need to be so surprised!  Our dads and Sirius' started doing this in their 3rd year, and all of them got it in their 5th, it only took them so long because they were doing it on their own.  With their help, it shouldn't take us half as long."

Harry's mind jogged and butterflies began to fly in his stomach, he became a little excited at the though, what if he became a creature that could fly?  Or any creature at all, for that matter?  It would be very helpful now that he was probably number one on Voldemort's 'To Kill' list.  Who cared about the law when one's life was in danger?  It wasn't as though he would use such a skill for evil.

oHarry watched Harry for a bit and knew that Harry would agree to try, regardless of the fact that what they were doing was illegal, and as he predicted, Harry nodded, "okay, I'll try."

"Great!  I got books on all types of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, you name the animal, and it'd be in one of these books," oHarry said, "I think I'd like to be some sort of large cat, that'd be way cool.  Then again, you can't really choose what animal you become because it depends on what sort of person you are.  I'm a bit of a prankster, so I thought maybe some sort of monkey…" he laughed, and Harry joined in.

Harry was in fact a little afraid that he'd be a snake.  Sure, it'd be cool, but they weren't the pleasantest of creatures, and he didn't appreciate that snakes could be easily trodden on.  But if he became a snake, he could capture Wormtail.  Snake's eat rats, right?  But what if Voldemort found him and wanted to keep him???

"You can have a look at a wide variety of animals and it might give you an idea what animal you may become and you'll know some of the 'properties' that animal has.  I actually have no idea what I'll become.  I think Wormtail became a rat because he plays dirty like a rat.  Sirius is a dog because he's playful and loyal.  I don't know what characteristic dad has that made him a stag though…" oHarry began.

"What about McGonagall?  What made her a cat?  She's quick for an old woman," Harry thought.

"Yeah, quick to get angry and scare us all with detention!" oHarry laughed.

"Do you know a reporter called Rita Skeeter?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh yeah, she's a Daily Prophet reporter, isn't she?  Her articles are very interesting, but of course, they're full of lies," oHarry said, "I remember she did some articles about the downfall of Voldemort and interviewing mum and dad, she totally twisted their words.  They weren't too impressed, and she suffered the wrath of Sirius."

"What did he do?"

"Just redecorated her place, placed glue on her toilet seat, charmed her quill to write bad poetry, cursed her to speak in rhyme…"  the list went on.

Harry wondered if he should tell him that she's an illegal animagus, and thought that it'd do no harm to capture that awful reporter, "she's an illegal animagus as well."

oHarry sat up straight, "is she?  How did you know?"

"Hermione figured it out…"

"You go, 'Mione!  Did Skeeter write an article that offended her?" oHarry asked.

"Not only did it offend her, but it caused her to get a lot of hate mail, and she also wrote a lot of awful articles about her friends," Harry said.

oHarry nodded, "That's our Hermione!  So what animal is Skeeter?  A cockcroach?"

Harry sniggered, "no, in fact, she's a beetle, that's how she listens in on other peoples' conversations and gets all the juicy facts to twist in her articles."

"A beetle?  Very becoming of her!"  oHarry laughed, "we can use that fact to our advantage, and speaking of Hermione, dad and Sirius made me promise not to let any of my friends know, and therefore you must promise as well."

"Uh, sure, but why?"

"You see, no-one except our family, Dumbledore, and some of Dumbledore's agents knows that the Marauders are illegal animagi, and we want to keep it that way."

"But my Ron and Hermione know about it."

"Really?  Either way, the more people who knows about it, the more chance of other's finding out.  Even if you go back to your world, you shouldn't tell people you're an animagus.  We have the natural ability to become an animagus because our dad's were, and they may not, they may be jealous of that."

At the mention of jealousy, Harry remembered Ron and his jealousy when Harry was chosen as a champion for Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament.  His jealousy had caused Harry to live some of the most awful times of his life alone.  Well, not totally alone, he had Hermione, but Hermione was not Ron, she just didn't have the sense of humour, the apparent dislike for study and Snape, his like for Quidditch…

"Okay, I promise."

"Okay Snitch, dad said it was good if we knew a bit about several varieties of animals, that way when we become an animal, at least we'd know a bit about it and it's capabilities," oHarry handed him a book, "get reading."

"Uh, could you pass me the book on mammals?" Harry looked at the cover of the book that oHarry had given him.

"What, you don't think you'll become a type of goldfish?" oHarry smiled innocently.  Harry just raised an eyebrow and oHarry shrugged.

"Fine, don't dream of underwater adventures then, be a boring old mammal!"  

Harry grinned, "dad and Sirius would be interested to know that that you think they are 'boring old mammals'."

oHarry grinned back, "you go do that, and I won't let you read any of these books."

"Fine, I'll go to the library and borrow some of my own."

"But you don't have a library card."

"I'll use yours."

"Oh no you don't!  You're not gonna use mine!"

"I'll make my own when I get there."

"But you'll need an ID when you make it, and you need your parents signature to make one."

"I'm sure mum and dad," Harry paused a little, it still felt strange calling them that, "I'm sure mum and dad would sign the forms for me…"

"What are you two bickering about?" oSirius had cast the Alohorama on the door and let himself in.  The two Harry's spun around and smiled innocently.

"Nothing!"  By the look on oSirius' face, Harry guessed that he heard their friendly banter anyway.

"Prongs wants to let you know that we'll start tonight at 9:00 at my place," oSirius said.

"Why can't we do it here?"  Harry was curious to know.

oSirius raised an eyebrow, "what are you talking about?  My place is here, I have rooms for myself in this house."

Harry was stunned, "why don't you have your own house?" oHarry laughed at the expression on Harry's face, and oSirius frowned.

"I used to have my own place, but I came over here all the time anyway so Prongs asked me to move in."

"Oh."

"Also, Lily got back five minutes ago, and dinner should be around six," his eyes flew to the books, "and don't forget to read up on different types of dogs!"  He grinned and left, closing the door behind him, the lock magically coming back in place.

~*~

"So you can call me Griff, like you used to, and you can call him," oHarry pointed to Harry, "Snitch."

"Well, that will make things a little easier around here," Lily smiled.  Harry couldn't help staring at her for a bit.  She was so gentle…

"Okay, _Snitch_," Magnolia began.  She made a good impression of Snape spitting out peoples' names, "when do you go back to _your world."_

"Mags, don't be so rude!" oHarry whispered to her.  She just scowled.

"That is something I'd like to know too," Harry turned to oSirius and his dad, ignoring Magnolia's tone of voice.

"Your Dumbledore said that you could stay here for the rest of the summer, you'll enjoy your holiday more.  Besides, it's safer for you here," James replied.

"Safer?"  oHarry questioned.

"Yeah, he'd be safe from those relatives of his," oSirius said.  Harry wasn't sure if oSirius said that to cover up the fact that Harry was in danger of Voldemort, or if oSirius honestly thought that his relatives would kill him.  Either way, he was glad that he was going to stay here longer.  He knew that he did not belong in this world, yet over the past two days he felt as though he wanted to stay, yet another part of him knew that he had to return to his life.

Harry noticed that Magnolia looked disappointed while everyone else just frowned at her.  Harry sighed.

~*~

After a thoroughly enjoyable meal where the food was perfect and was comparable to Hogwart's meals, oHarry had again grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him away.  Harry had again noticed Magnolia's hostile look.

Harry was aware that it was ten minutes to nine, and oHarry was probably taking him to oSirius' quarters.  Harry still had not investigated the house, which was two storeys and looked very big from the outside and even bigger on the inside.  He liked the décor though, the colours were simple and even some of the colourful pieces of art hanging on the wall that contrasted with the walls looked like they belonged there.  There were family portraits, of course, and a lot of framed pictures full of oHarry and Magnolia when they were younger, and also a lot of pictures of the Marauders and Lily.

After being dragged halfway across the continent, they stopped in front of a large door with a fancy doorknob that looked like it belonged to medievil times and let themselves in.

Harry surveyed the room, there was a bed in the middle in the room with it's covers thrown back.  There was a large window on one side of the room with a study desk underneath it.  The rest of the room greatly resembled the Shrieking Shack with the exception that the pieces of furniture lying around was not half decayed and slightly intact.

"Your Sirius LIVES here?"  Harry was shocked.

"Well, it's not usually this bad, he's just been very busy lately and hasn't had time to clean his stuff up.  Also, sometimes Moony comes here during the full-moon and is locked up in here with Sirius.  Sirius keeps him away from his bed and desk, the rest can be disposed of," oHarry replied as though that was obvious.  He plopped himself onto the bed, and Harry sat next to him.

Footsteps came and oSirius and James came in.

"Everybody ready to do something illegal!?"  oSirius exclaimed.

"Yeah!"  oHarry punched the air.  

"Um, have you told Sirius that I'd be doing this?"  Harry asked uncertainly.

"Uhh, we told him briefly before, he went bonkers at first, saying it was too dangerous and all, that man sure is too serious…" James said.  oSirius frowned at the pun.

"Anyway, in the end, he saw reason and thought it'd be handy for you to become an animagus.  He'll be coming here shortly," oSirius said.

As if on cue, Sirius rushed through the door and locked it behind him.  "I had a hard time shaking off that girl of yours Prongs.  Well, let's get started…"

~*~

It had been one week since Harry had been in this other world.  Even though, everytime he saw his parents, it still felt a little strange.  He knew they were technically not his real parents, but they accepted him and he felt that need to be accepted.  And everyone except for Magnolia accepted him.  All in all, he was enjoying his stay immensely.

It was Magnolia's 7th day at the icecream parlour.  Harry wondered if she would ever become as big as Dudley at the rate she was eating icecream.  James had told her that this would be the last icecream day, to which she was not the least bit happy as she still had not tried out every flavour of icecream.  However, Sirius butted in and said that there was a known risk of going bald and having pimples on your face if you ate icecream more than seven times a month, and he pointed out Stan on the Knight Bus, saying that Stan eaten icecream nine days a month and had grown all the pimples and went bald, he was able to grow all his hair back but the pimples stayed.  Magnolia was repulsed by Stan's pimply face and hurriedly said that today would be the last day she ate icecream.

They were sitting at some tables just outside Fortescue's in Diagon Alley.  The man who served them was the same as the man in Harry's world who had helped Harry with some of his homework and who had given him free icecream.  Harry's icecream was a tropical mix with different fruit flavours.  He chatted with James as he ate.

"So what do you think I'm doing wrong in my technique?"  He brushed a strand of light brown hair out of his eyes.  Everyone had thought it best if Harry, Sirius, and Remus disguised themselves so that no-one would ask questions.  James had transfigured Harry's face, making it fuller, giving him larger eyes, a thinner nose, and long brown hair.  They could not make the scar go away, so they just covered it with some muggle make-up.

"Well, it is no doubt that you are capable of powerful magic, your Moony told us that already.  You understand all the theory well enough.  It seems as though you have difficulty concentrating on the spell, is there something worrying you?"  James asked worriedly.

Harry was again unsure of what his parents would think if they knew he was a Parselmouth, and said carefully, "I'm worried that I might become something awful.  What if I become a beetle like Skeeter?"

oHarry had told everyone that Skeeter was a beetle, they were delighted at the news and knew that they could use that to make her write honestly.  That was not Lilys' idea at first, who wanted an arrest for the sake of justice, but the others thought that was a little hypocritical.  James laughed, "somehow I doubt that your personality suits something as awful as that.  Don't worry, I have confidence that you will not become an insect.  You can see Griff's not worried, even though there is a chance that he'd become something awful, and he's coming along nicely.  It doesn't really matter what you become really, we're not gonna look at you any different if you became a sloth or a snake."

Harry hoped what he said was true, and he just nodded.

Magnolia had finished her icecream and came over to James with her hand in Lily's.  In fact, everyone had finished their icecream.  oSirius, oRemus, and Remus sat chatting in the background, while Sirius and oHarry had a competition to see who could build the tallest tower with the empty icecream glasses.

"James, we're going to get Ray (their owl) checked up, he hasn't been flying very well lately," Lily held up the cage that held the old grey owl.  Ray hooted softly as though agreeing with her assessment of his flying abilities.

"Okay, men!"  James cried to the Marauders.  They all looked up quizzically, "it is time to go to Eyelops Owl Emporium, are you ready?"

They all rolled their eyes.  "We'll wait here for you," oSirius said, they were obviously in the middle of an interesting conversation.

James sighed, "alright, you guys coming?" James asked Sirius and oHarry, who both nodded and stood up.  It seemed as though both towers of glasses were of equal height and Sirius had tried to add some folded napkins on top to make his taller, but then Harry started skillfully making a structure with the spoons, interlocking their fancy curled ends to make a stable tall structure.

"I win!" oHarry cried in glee, and Sirius just huffed.  He was not doing too well, in terms of competitions, lately.

~*~

Like most of Diagon Alley, the Emporium was hardly any different to the one in Harry's world.  The only difference Harry spotted was that the place looked a little newer and the owner was different.  Harry pointed this out to Lily, who explained, "seven years ago this place was burnt down by Death Eaters, the owner died from severe burns.  The place was rebuilt and his son sold it to his cousin, who now works here."

"Oh," Harry looked around at all the animals.  There was, as he remembered, a lot of owls perched around the place.  Magnolia was poking some guinnea pigs, trying to make them move.  oHarry looked fascinatedly at some magical creatures in the corner, while Sirius explained what was special about each of them.  James and Lily was at the counter speaking with the shopkeeper.  Harry was about to join oHarry and Sirius when he heard some voices.

_"Please, let us out…"_, curious, Harry followed the voices through the maze of cages and pet products.  He had a bad feeling in his stomach who those voices belonged too, but they sounded so sad, their tones were so hopeless…

As he had predicted, he reached variety of cages full of snakes of different types.  The voices were coming from the large snakes.

_"Please, we have been here for too long, we want our freedom…"_

_"Master, please help us…"_

Harry started, were they referring to him as their master?  He looked around, making sure no-one was in hearing distance,  _"I am not your master," he said._

The snakes all seemed to stop for a moment, as though contemplating what he had just said, then they began to slither around again, _"we were not calling to you, we were calling to our Master…"_

_"You can speak our tongue, you can communicate to him for us…"_

Harry guessed who their master would be.  Who else could speak Parseltongue?

_"Do not do it!  They are evil, and they will only do harm in the world when they are freed!"_  The voice came from one of the medium snakes.

_"You are correct, they are not to be freed."  _A large snake in a separate cage agreed.

_"Silence!  You are all fools who do not understand your own predicament.  These humans will only 'purchase' us to use in their potions, or they want our beautiful scales, or they want us to be a comfort thing to them, a decoration in a small cage.  Only our Master understands we are not made for all these things!"_

Harry felt a little sick.  Here were creatures begging for freedom, something that he believed in.  Yet they belonged to Voldemort, even the other snakes agreed.  Harry knew that he could not set them free.

_"I'm sorry, your Master is an evil man…" _as soon as he said this, the other snakes protested and Harry knew that there was no way to make them change their minds, _"I cannot help you, please do not ask me again…"_

_"Good decision, young human," _came the large snake's voice.

_"You will regret not helping us…" _ Harry heard as he turned to leave the area.  He did not notice the scuttle of feet as someone hid behind some shelves as he went by.

~*~

Harry woke up at an early hour the next day.  He just lay there for a bit, thinking about the day before.  After getting the potions for Ray, Magnolia had no desire to hang around Diagon Alley anymore and was instead eager to go home and played computer games, so they had gone back home after that.  The Marauders had stayed behind to hang out at the Leaky Cauldron, and oHarry had played computer games with Magnolia.  Harry had a chance to talk a lot with Lily, and even helped her cook while they chatted.

What the snakes said had been a little disturbing; they were extremely loyal to Voldemort and although Harry and the other snakes thought their intentions were evil, the reasoning of that intention was not so.  They were animals bought to be used in potions or for other human uses such as mere decorations, and snakes were not made for that.  Harry felt sorry for them, for the fact that they could not be understood, and for the fact that they so eagerly believed in Voldemort.

He got up and had a quick shower then went downstairs.  He was the first one up, and decided to make breakfast for everyone else.  As he began getting the utensils ready, an owl came in with the Daily Prophet, and the front page headline caught his eye:

"THE RISE OF THE NEW DARK LORD"

AN: Sorry guys, that's all you're getting, I really can't think of how to continue it at the moment, and as I've spent longer on this as I should, you won't be getting anymore.  I didn't include everything I wanted in this chapter, but if I did it'd be way too long and will take up way too much of my time.  I was going to go through Harrys' animagus training, but I wasn't creative enough to think something up, sorry.  I know, boring chapter, a little rushed.  nothing happened, but hopefully it'll get more exciting in the next chapter.  Next chapter won't be up for a few weeks, maybe a month even, due to upcoming exams.  Until then, thanx for your patience and have a good day!


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Hey, I'm back!  Sorry for the _very_ long wait, I wonder if anyone's still reading this?  I've finished my exams, and thanks for those who wished me luck, for those of you who are wondering, I think I passed, but we don't find out for another few weeks.  I actually started this chapter several days ago, but came up with a bit of a writer's block, so while I tried to get around that I attempted a humour fic called "Ask Snape".  I've done several chapters of it already, so if you'd like to see my ill attempts at humour, or have a laugh at something stupid, have a read!

I guess everyone's read OoTP by now?  I thought it wasn't as good as the previous ones (my favourite being PoA), and I am very saddened that the person who died was, well, I'm not gonna spoil it for those of you who haven't read it.  But I am hoping against hope that that person comes back, as that person's death was a little sketchy.  As of now my story is an AU!

From now on, I've changed the location of where Harry saw the snakes from Eeylops Owl Emporium to the Magical Menagerie, I just haven't done it in the previous chapters yet and will go back and change it once I find the time as I've lost my previous chapters.  I realized that they probably only have owls at Eeylops.  ^_^

Again, thanks to all reviews, this is gonna take up some space…

**Melissa:** I'm glad that you think my story's actually getting better, as I've found I've dragged it on a lot longer than I intended.  At the rate I'm going, I'm unsure when I'm gonna finish!  I didn't really characterize Magnolia after either Petunia or Dudley, I just wanted to make her spoilt!  But that may change.  You wanna know what Harry's animagus form is?  So do I!  I haven't decided yet, some of the ones I wanna do everyone else has done, so I might just do it anyway.

**Relle:** Sorry about that cliffhanger, I honestly didn't know how to continue, and that is similar to what happens at the end of this chapter.  But it's not as evil as the last one, I promise.  Hope this chapter answers some questions.  Thanx for the encouragement for my exams, it made me feel good and motivated me!

**ShortySC22:** Thanx for the encouragement in the exams and your compliments.  I'm still not sure what Harry's gonna turn into.  I actually wanted them to leave for Harry's world in the next chapter, but it looks like that's not happening until the chapter after.  ^_^

**LittleEar BigEar's sis:** I'm glad you liked the chapter!  Like what I've said to everyone else, I'm still not too sure what animal Harry's gonna turn into.  I'm glad you thought the snakes' view was interesting.  I've always wondered about how animals feel being all locked up.  I mean, I enjoy watching little cute animals in cages, but I wonder.

**Kanashimi:** They don't find out that Harry can speak to snakes yet in this chapter, but you'll see what happens in the next chapter.  I'm glad you didn't think the chapter was boring!  ^_^

**Pantherocker: **I'm glad you like my story and think it's creative, it's very difficult to be creative when there's so many other great stories out there!  (I think about 70000 HP ones).  Thanx for the encouragement for my exams, how did you go in yours?  I hope you did well.

**Lady FoxFire:** Thanks for the review.  I didn't really consider that it was not oHarry who promised Snape about the pranks, I'm glad you picked that up!  Looks like I'll have to go back and change it… ^_^

**Jasmine Black: **Well, hope this chapter is to your satisfaction!  I'm glad you liked the snakes, I had wanted Harry to speak to snakes SOMEWHERE in the chapter, just wasn't sure how to go about doing it.

**Anonymous: **This update isn't as soon as I would have liked, thanks for the review and your patience!

**Hnh: **I can understand being addicted to fanfic, and am greatly flattered that you're addicted to mine.  Hope this chapter quenches your anxiety over my mean cliffhanger!  ^_^

**CeciliaOrechio:** Well, several of your answers are answered in this chapter.  I guess in my rush I didn't really specify at the beginning of the chapter where the characters are, and I'm glad someone picked it up, I'll have to go back and change that.  Let's just say they're in the Hogwarts corridors.  ^_^

**Silver Angel: **You find out who snitched on Harry, it's not as sinister as you may think.  I know Magnolia's a brat now, but I may change that.  Hope this chapter satisfies you!

**Risi: **Sorry about the cliffhanger!  I kinda had to leave it at that, this cliffhanger isn't too bad and I've promised another chapter within the next few days ^_^.  I think I went okay in my exams, thanks for the encouragement.  You find out who found out about Harry talking to the snakes in this chapter.  As for what animals Harry/oHarry become, I'm still not quite sure yet.  I considered dragon, but they're kinda big, aren't they?  I don't exactly want Harry damaging whatever place he transforms in, not to mention I don't want him eating princesses ^_^.

**WitchWay: **Thank you for the review, here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy it!

**Lilybbee: **I must apologise again for the cliffhanger, and I am deeply sorry that it took me so long to update.  I must admit, I do need a muse, and I intend to write and update quicker than I have been.  Thank you for your enthusiasm in my writing ^_^.

**Doc Holiday: **Thank you for your compliments.  Here's the new chapter you've been waiting for.  I don't think you'll be seeing the otherworld, we'll be seeing their reactions in the later chapters.  oHarry also doesn't find out about Harry's past until maybe next chapter or the chapter after.  Your suggestions were great, but I've already planned for Harry to go back to his world.  But you never know, I may even change my plans to accommodate your excellent suggestions.

**Ciela00: **Sorry, I didn't mean to be mean, but that's just how it happened!  ^_^  Thank you for the review, hope you like this chapter.

**Nightswift: **You get to see what the headline was about in this chapter!  Don't hate Magnolia, she might change as she gets older… ^_^ (shouldn't Dudley have changed then???)

**WeasleyTwinsLover1112:** Glad you liked my story.  Hope this update was soon enough (doubt it was, but I can't help that ^_^).

**Chip: **Thank you for the review, it's very flattering!  Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: As per usual, characters and all belong to JKR, except for Magnolia.

~*~

Chapter 9

Harry's hand trembled as he slowly reached for the paper, as though delaying the reading of it could delay the truth it contained.  _Could there really be a Dark Lord rising in this perfect place? There couldn't be, Voldemort is powerless!  Or did someone see me speak Parseltongue and misunderstood…or maybe Skeeter's out there trying to increase the paper ratings…_

As his fingertips touched the edge of the paper, there was a roar in the living room that made him jump, and turning around he saw a dark-skinned log-shaped head sitting in the fire, looking for all the world as though it belonged there.  The head in the fire was one he did not recognise, but the head, after looking around quickly and landing it's eyes on Harry, seemed to recognise Harry.

"Ah, Harry!  I need to speak to your father, it's urgent!"  Although the man said his message was urgent, somehow he had the soft kind of voice that made the message not seem urgent at all.  Harry nodded dumbly and, forgetting the paper, ran up the stairs two at a time, reaching his parents' bedroom and rapping the door.

"What?"  Came a mumbled voice from inside.  Apparently the rooms' occupant had not been awake yet.

"Uh, dad?  There's someone in the fireplace to see you, says it's urgent," Harry said, unsure of whether or not James was a morning person.

"Urgent?"  James appeared in the doorway almost instantly, shirt still twisted around his upper body as though he'd moved around a lot during the night and hair even messier than usual, and ran downstairs, Harry on his heels.  James skidded to a halt at the fireplace and bent over.  The head started speaking almost immediately.

"Ah, James!  I doubt you've read the paper?"

James scowled, "good morning to you too.  No, at this time of the day I am usually still unconscious.  In other words, I'd have my eyes closed and wouldn't be able to read the paper.  What's in the paper?"

"A person was spotted speaking to snakes in the Magical Menagerie."

"A Parselmouth?  That can't be good…"

Harry froze at James' statement.  It was as he had feared, they would not accept a Parselmouth, as it was a sign of a dark wizard.

"No, it's not good at all," the head agreed, "that could only mean that You-Know-Who is out and about again, or You-Know-Who has reproduced, which is a scary thought in itself."

"Who saw this?"  James asked.

"Some kid named Bones, unfortunately, she only heard some hissing but couldn't see the persons face.  She was so scared she ran away as soon as she could, and another unfortunate thing is that the first adult she ran into and shared her news with was Rita Skeeter."

"That can't be good, so the Prophet won't be a very good source then," even as James said this, he considered approaching Rita with her secret and demanding the true details of the event.

"No, but we have interrogated the girl and the only information she could give us was that the Parselmouth was a young male."

"What about the time she saw this?"

The head shook, "yesterday sometime, she was so scared she ran down empty alleys behind the shops.  By the time she ran into Skeeter, she was not aware how long she'd been running around for."

James scoffed, "so what did you want me to do?"

"I want you and Sirius to investigate this case.  Find out if a person really spoke Parseltongue, and if this person exists, then I want him in our cells for further questioning.  If he can truly speak to snakes, then he is no doubt a threat to us."

James nodded in agreement and raised his hand in a salute, "yes sir!"

The head frowned at the mock salute and disappeared.

Harry stared at the place in the fire where the head had been.  Should he tell them that he had spoken Parseltongue?  It was the right thing to do, but if he did that he would lose what he now considered to be his family.  As long as he was careful not to speak Parseltongue in front of other people anymore, then his dad and oSirius will investigate the case, find nothing, and give up.  So was it selfish to keep this secret to himself?

Lupin walked in then, looking tired as usual, otherwise looking more wide awake than Sirius and oSirius, who both looked as though they needed more sleep.  Harry heard more footsteps approaching, it must've been his mother.  He doubted that oHarry or Magnolia would be awake yet, as their game sessions usually lasted quite a while.

"Was that Patil in the fire?" oSirius yawned.

"Who's this Patil guy?" Sirius asked.

"He's the head of the aurors at the Ministry of Magic.  He had a case for us…" James began.

"About time!  We've been unemployed for so long!"  oSirius exclaimed.

"Which had it's good uses, didn't it?"  Lily asked as she walked in, tying her hair up roughly with a ribbon, "otherwise you would not have had enough time to discover your cross-dimensional travel.  Also, if you didn't have a job, that meant that the world was in order and that there has been no dark activity, which is what we all want."

James swept over to Lily and planted a quick kiss on her cheek and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "yes, dear, that is what we all want, to live in a peaceful world…"

oSirius grinned, "ooooh, isn't that sweet, why didn't I get a kiss on the cheek when I came in?"

"You really want one?"  James made a move to go over to oSirius, who stepped back and raised his hands to fend him off.  James grinned, "I thought so."  Sirius and Lupin looked at each other and stifled their laughter.

"Anyway, what did the guy want?"  oSirius asked, straightening himself and trying to regain some dignity.

"Some girl said she saw a person speaking Parseltongue…" James started.

"Really?  That can't be good," oSirius said.  Harry shrunk back a little, that movement didn't escape Lupin.

"You can get the exaggerated version in the Daily Prophet."

"Skeeter?"

James nodded, "Patil wants us to investigate, see if there really is a person out there who could be the 'Next Dark Lord', or if that person was Voldemort himself."

"Which is gonna be pretty difficult, if it's Voldemort I doubt he'd go prancing around Diagon Alley for a repeat experience with Dumbledore.  If it was some kid who spoke with the snakes, they'd be too frightened to try it again," oSirius said.

"And if the Parselmouth won't appear again, what's the point of us investigating?" James sighed.

"We might as well go have a look-around, just so that we have something to report back," oSirius plopped himself on one of the chairs surrounding the dining table, "what's for breakfast?" he looked towards Lily expectantly.  She raised an eyebrow and turned towards the sink to get some clean dishes.

"Well Sirius, what would you like for breakfast?"  Lily asked as she walked over to the pantry to have a look.

"Pancakes would be good!" oSirius exclaimed.

"Then cereal it is!" Lily replied sweetly, and placed a bowl in front of oSirius and filled it with some oats.

"I believe you misunderstood me…"

"No, I understood perfectly.  If you are going to live here I suggest you act like one of the family and do some work!"  Lily smirked and turned to the others, "you can sit down you know, it's cereal for everyone today, we're out of ingredients for pancakes anyway."

The other Marauders just laughed nervously and sat down.  Harry sat next to James and turned to him.

"So, uh, why do the ministry want this investigated?  It might be some kid playing around, you know, like how we mew to cats, or cluck to chickens…" Harry asked nervously.

oSirius turned to Harry, "no person in their right mind would even pretend to be talking to snakes," he said, pouring some oats into his bowl, "maybe a Slytherin would, because if someone was caught communicating with snakes then they'd be singled out as a dark wizard."

"Oh," Harry said.  He noticed Lupin looking at him.

"So what if you don't find the Parselmouth?" Lupin asked lightly.

"Then nothing happens.  There's only so much we can do looking for a person who doesn't want to be found.  The news headlines will change and the event will be forgotten," answered James.

James and oSirius then discussed what sort of things they could do to investigate this case, and there wasn't much that they could do.  They decided to visit the Menagerie after breakfast and speak to the owner, asking for details of people who visited.  Halfway through their discussion oHarry and Magnolia walked in and Lily filled them in about their case.  At Lily's mention that a Parselmouth was spotted in the Magical Menagerie, Magnolia's eyes flew over to Harry.  Harry felt uncomfortable under the stare and excused himself, making his way to his room to get changed.

The Potter's had several guest rooms, and Harry was given one of the largest ones.  Making his way to his room miserably, Harry failed to notice the footsteps following him until he was at the door to his room.  He turned around and smiled weakly at Lupin and Sirius.  Sirius motioned for everyone go go into Harry's room, and once they were all in he cast a silencing spell on the door.

"You spoke to the snakes yesterday, didn't you?" Lupin eyed him carefully.  Harry couldn't think of what to say, and just nodded.

"Are you going to tell them it was you?" Sirius said.

Harry shook his head, "you heard what they said, Parselmouth's aren't a good sign.  Besides, they'll just give up if they don't find out anything.  Please don't tell them?"

Lupin sighed, "it's your choice whether or not you want to share your talent with others, we won't tell them if you don't want us to."

Harry looked at Sirius, who nodded in agreement, "although personally I don't think they'd mind it if you told them you could speak to snakes.  I mean, that's just like saying all werewolves are evil, but once you know them they're just like us… most of the time.  I think that James and the other Sirius would understand."

"So what were you talking to the snakes about anyway?" Lupin was curious to know why Harry would converse with the snakes in a public place.

"Some of the snakes were telling me that they wanted their freedom and that," Harry took a breath, "and that Voldemort was the only one who understood that snakes are not to be purchased for potions and other 'humanly' uses."

"Voldemort sure has a lot of influence on animals, doesn't he?" Lupin thought to himself.

"Not all of them were his followers though, some of them thought that what Voldemort did was evil," Harry said quietly.

~*~

Magnolia eyed Harry as he left the room, and then turned to James who was just finishing his breakfast.

"Dad, can I tell you something?"  Magnolia asked.

"Sure honey, you can tell me anything!"

"I saw someone speaking Parseltongue yesterday."

oSirius choked on his cereal, and hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe some traces of nut from his pyjamas.  oHarry and Lily just stared at her with their mouths open.  James put his spoon down and frowned at her.

"Did you?  Why didn't you tell us?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said.

"We would have believed you," oSirius smiled, "what made you think that we wouldn't?"

Magnolia steeled herself, and looked James in the eye, "because the person I saw speaking to the snakes was the other Harry."

There was a pause.  Magnolia still stared at James, and James stared back with a look of shock, which miraculously changed into that of anger.

"Honey," he said in a small voice, as though trying to keep the anger in, "did you really see someone speaking Parseltongue?"

"See!  That's why I didn't tell you yesterday because I knew you wouldn't believe me!"

"That's because we know our Harry can't speak Parseltongue, so there's no way the other Harry could!"

"But I heard with my own ears, I saw with my own eyes!"

"You've had it in for the other Harry since I took him to see Dumbledore!  You think that we care more for the other Harry…"

"You do, otherwise you wouldn't be yelling at me like this!"

"We do NOT care more for the other Harry!  The poor boy doesn't have a family, and we're just trying to make him feel accepted, which is difficult while you're being all jealous and making him uncomfortable…"

"And I want him to feel uncomfortable, because he's not a part of our family but he's living here and taking up your time like he is!"

"Sirius isn't a part of our family but he lives here and takes up my time, but you don't complain about him!  You just can't stand the fact that Harry has lived an isolated life and needs more attention than you do!"

Silence reigned as both James and Magnolia tried to catch their breaths.  The other occupants in the room had been silently watching the whole time.  Lily got up quietly and walked out.  oSirius just pretended to keep eating his cereal, not daring to look up.  oHarry placed a comforting hand on Magnolia's shoulder.

"Mags, the other Harry will only be here until the end of the holidays, that's why he's getting a little more attention before he leaves…" oHarry started.

Magnolia got up abruptly and glared at oHarry, "now you're on his side too!  I hate you all!" and she stormed upstairs.  The sound of a slamming door resounded.  James was glaring at the seat where Magnolia was sitting, then breathed deeply and turned to oSirius.

"We're leaving in five minutes," he said stiffly, and went upstairs.

oSirius didn't know what to say, so he went upstairs to get ready for the investigation.

~*~

Being in Harry's room with the silencing spell, Harry, Sirius, and Lupin didn't hear any of the yelling that occurred downstairs, and by the time they emerged from Harry's room and entered the dining room, oHarry was the only one left at the table.  He looked up and smiled with false cheerfulness.

"Morning!"

Harry frowned at such an obviously fake cheerfulness, "what's wrong?"

oHarry sighed, "dad and Magnolia got in a row," he hesitated a bit, "Magnolia was a _little_ jealous about dad paying attention to you," he looked at Harry.  Harry had known that Magnolia was not fond of him, and now he knew why.  He felt sorry for her feeling like that, yet at the same time he felt she didn't deserve the pity as she was a spoilt girl.  "Magnolia's in her room right now sulking about it," oHarry continued, "mum's upset, but she didn't say anything about it because she knew how stubborn they could be.  I think she's gone for a walk.  Dad and Sirius have gone to Diagon Alley."  oHarry started packing the dirty dishes and taking them over to the sink.  Harry quickly walked over to help with the dishes.

"Hey Moony, can you transfigure my face a little?  I want to Diagon Alley, see if I can help them a little and speed up the searching process," Sirius looked at Lupin, Harry understood that Sirius wanted to help them find nothing and just forget about the incident.  He wondered if Sirius would try to convince them that a Parselmouth was not necessarily an evil wizard, but it would look a little suspicious if he started speaking kindly of the 'scum' of the wizarding world.

"My wands upstairs," Lupin said, and the two of them left.  oHarry watched them leave and turned to Harry.

"So, what plans have you got for today?"

Harry shrugged, "I was intending to just talk with dad a little about my animagus transformation, I'm still having a bit of trouble."

"Yeah?  Anything I could help you with?"

"Nah, it was just some minor details.  How about you?  Going anywhere?"

"Adrian and Thomas wanted to show me their new skateboards, we were going to go to the skateboard park.  Did you want to come?"

Harry smiled at the offer, "I don't even know how to skateboard…"

"Then it's a good chance for you to learn!" oHarry exclaimed.

"I don't want to intrude among your friends.  Besides, it won't be so much fun if I broke my neck or something.  You go ahead, I'll stay here and read up on some animals."

~*~

Sirius and Lupin left for Diagon Alley, oHarry went to the skateboard park with his friends, and Harry relaxed on the couch in the living room with a book about large cats.  His eyelids started to droop a little when he heard footsteps approaching and he sat up straight to see Magnolia heading straight for him.  He stayed seated as she stood in front of him, eyes red as though she's been crying for a long time, and she glared at him.

"You think that dad likes you better than he likes me, don't you?"  She crossed her arms across her chest.

Harry hadn't been expecting such a straight-forward question, he had expected accusations, "uh, I don't think that dad…"

"You can't call him dad, he's my father, not yours!" Magnolia shouted, and was greeted with silence.  Harry was well aware that James was not his father, but hearing Magnolia voice it made him feel uncomfortable.

"I know he's not my father," he said quietly.

"Yes, he can't be your father, because he is not an evil man, you are…"

"What?"

"Yeah, I know you're a Parselmouth, I saw you speaking to the snakes.  But no-one believed me when I told them, they all believed that you were an innocent boy, that you were not evil…"

"I'm not evil!"  Harry protested.

"Yes you are, and I'm going to look for mum and show her that you are evil!"  She held up a glass jar that contained a little green snake, "you probably don't want to see your friend tortured, do you?"  Harry wondered briefly where she got the snake from, but then started when Magnolia made a dash for the door.

"Wait!"  Harry ran after her.  Magnolia was a fast runner, even with her shorter legs.  Harry had never had much chance for any sport other than quidditch, and soon felt out of breath.  But he wanted to stop Magnolia.  Was that girl really going to torture the snake to get him to speak to it?  But again, the comparison with Dudley appeared in his mind and he had no doubt that she would hurt an animal to try to get him to show that he could speak to it.

By now the two of them had ran two blocks, Magnolia seemed to know where Lily had gone, and she seemed to be headed for a patch of green that was a nearby park.  When she got there, she raced around the trees and bushes.  She then ran around a large tree and Harry saw her fall back onto the ground, breathing heavily.  Harry reached her, also breathing heavily, and was about to reach down to help her up when he saw what, or rather who, she ran into.  It was none other than Lucius Malfoy and a horde of Death Eaters.  They were not in the usual Death Eater costume, but he recognized them nevertheless.  How could he forget the man who was going to execute Buckbeak?  Or the man who treated Dobby so badly?

"Well well, what do we have here?"  He said softly, "I was on my way to visit your lot, but here you are ready to escort me."  The other Death Eaters chuckled among themselves.

Harry fumbled as he helped Magnolia to her feet, then pushed her behind his back as he faced the Death Eaters.  He reached inside his jacket for his wand… only to remember that he didn't bring his wand with him.

"Look at that, he protects his sister, how brave!  Even without a wand!"  Lucius added as he noticed Harry pale slightly when he couldn't find his wand.

Magnolia turned to run away but one of the Death Eaters hit her with the stunning spell.  The glass jar smashed on the cement pathway and the little snake slithered away.

"Not so fast, young lady!  We believe that the Dark Lord requires your presence…" Lucius drawled, then looked at Harry, "and the more the merrier."

Lucius shot the stunning spell at Harry.  With quick reflexes, he ducked out of the way just in time.  He quickly picked up some rocks from the ground and threw it at the surprised Death Eaters.  He picked Magnolia up and began to run.  He looked back to see some of the rocks hit home.  He quickly rounded a bush, and heard the bush frizzle as a curse hit it.  He looked around, thanking God that the park was empty today and quickly running to hide behind another larger tree.

A curse skimmed past his knee as he threw himself to the ground behind a tree, careful not to land Magnolia in a dangerous manner.  His heart pumped in his chest; he could do nothing against a bunch of Death Eaters without a wand, and there was nowhere else to run to.  There were trees and bushes lining the way to home, but the next one was ten metres away, dare he risk the dash?

He heard the Death Eaters approach and stop a little way away.  Then came Lucius' drawl, "come on out Potter, we don't want to hurt you," even as he said this, he approached the large tree.

Harry thought frantically; surely one didn't need a wand to do magic?  All wizards did accidental magic at least once in their life when they felt strong emotions, could Harry harness his emotions to work some magic without a wand?

The footsteps were approaching nearer, Harry looked down at Magnolia.  She was just a little girl, she shouldn't have to experience anything at all by the hands of the Death Eaters.  He closed his eyes and thought of the fear he felt for Magnolia, the fear he felt for himself, the anger at the Death Eaters for being in existence…

And he heard a smack as Lucius walked into something.

"It's a shield!  Someone's put up a shield!"

In that instant, Harry lifted Magnolia and ran for the next lot of trees.  There was a combined yell of 'stupefy' as three of the Death Eaters attempted to stun Harry.  At first they just bounced off the shiled.  However, the shield must have come down as Harry no longer let his strong emotions surge through his veins as he ran for his life, and a fourth stunner hit him in his back and he knew no more.

~*~

Harry was suddenly awoken.  The first thing he noticed was that wherever he was, it was pleasantly warm.  He heard the roaring of a fire nearby, and the ceiling he was faced with had a single lightbulb that was not turned on.  He sat up slowly and saw to his fright none other than Voldemort sitting in front of him, eyes as red as blood, his scar stung slightly and the memory of what happened came back and hit him like a hex.  He tried to get up and get away, but his feet were tied together, as were his wrists.  Voldemort's eyes rested on Harry's scar for a moment, before turning to his Death Eaters.

He heard a muttered 'ennervate' as Magnolia, who was lying on the ground next to him, was revived.  He looked over to her.

"Magnolia, are you okay?"  Magnolia nodded weakly.  She sat up and looked around at the Death Eaters gathered around the room in a ring, and when her eyes landed on Voldemort, she gave a little gasp.

"So our guests have now awaken.  You are no doubt curious as to why you were brought here?"  Voldemort whispered.  Harry noticed that this Voldemort, although magicless, looked very much the same as the Voldemort in his world, maybe slightly healthier, a little more filled out.  But the ruthless red eyes and the pale skin were exactly the same.

Magnolia began to shake.  Harry tried to move closer to her, and glared at Voldemort defiantly.

Voldemort chuckled at Harry's movements, "ah, want to protect the girl, do you?  There will be no need for that, all I want is some information regarding the sighting of the Parselmouth.  I am aware that both of you were present?"

Harry and Magnolia glanced at each other, Magnolia's eyes were full of fear, and Harry wondered if Magnolia would tell Voldemort that it was Harry who spoke to the snakes.

"Ah, you wonder how I knew who was present?" he said softly, "Wormtail, being the rat that he is, was present at the Menagerie on a mission.  He failed his mission, he was unable to free my servants.  However, he heard a young man speaking Parseltongue.  Unfortunately, because of fear of his old friends, he did not emerge from his hiding place and did not see who spoke to the snakes.  He was punished for his fear.  However, he advised me that both of you were present.  Did you see the Parselmouth?"

Harry looked at Magnolia again, and she was staring hard at the floor.  To his relief, she shook her head.  Voldemort chuckled again, "I see you are unwilling to co-operate.  If you do not tell me, you will be tortured.  If you do, you shall be treated like guests until your father comes to retrieve you.  Or maybe an incentive would encourage you to share some information with us?"

At the mention of James, Harry understood why Voldemort wanted them there; not only to ask if they saw the Parselmouth, but also to get information on James and oSirius' investigation.  It would seem that the Death Eaters were too lazy to do some investigating themselves.

Magnolia was shaking like a leaf, and her eyes were filled with tears.  Harry didn't know how to comfort her in this situation, he decided they'd figure out a way to escape once they were out of the presence of the Death Eaters.  He leant in towards her and whispered, "it's okay Magnolia, everything will be okay." 

"Will it now?"  Voldemort smiled evilly, "Lucius!"  Voldemort called Lucius Malfoy over.  Malfoy pointed his wand at the pair of them on the ground.  Voldemort just smiled, "how about the girl first?"

"Crucio!"  Malfoy cried.

Magnolia began to squirm on the ground under the curse.  Her screams echoed throughout the room.  However, the scream soon became that of a boys as Harry threw himself in front of the curse and began to jerk around on the ground, feeling the endless pain for the third time in his life.  The curse was suddenly lifted, and Harry lay there gasping for breath.

"You see?  Pain is the only reward for your disobedience.  Now Harry, if you do not wish to see your sister in pain, I suggest you tell me what you know of the Parselmouth,"  Voldemort stared Harry in the eye.

He didn't know what to say.  Of course, lying was the best option, so why not try it out?

"I… I didn't see any Parselmouths," Harry said hoarsely.  That was not an entire lie, as he did not see any Parselmouths, he _was_ a Parselmouth.  "I'm pretty sure Magnolia didn't see any either," Harry spoke for her, as she was shaking with sobs behind him. 

"Hmm, somehow you do not sound so certain.  Lucius?"

The curse came again, and Harry screamed in agony.  While he screamed he wondered briefly if the pain would become bearable if it was experienced often?  But the thought left as quickly as it came to be replaced by more pain and more screaming.  The curse was lifted again.

"It hurt, didn't it?"  Voldemort smiled down at him.  Harry decided to play along, and nodded.

"Now can you tell me the truth?"  Voldemort asked.  Harry nodded again.  Voldemort smiled maliciously.

"I didn't see any Parselmouths," Harry said softly.  He felt Magnolia stiffen slightly, then resumed her shaking.  Voldemort stared at the two children on the ground, and sighed.

"I see more pain is needed," he motioned for Malfoy to raise his wand.  Harry did some quick thinking; why did Voldemort want to know who the Parselmouth was?  Another ally?  Did Voldemort think that he could persuade the Parselmouth to become a Death Eater?  If so, what would happen to Harry if he admitted that he spoke to the snakes, would Voldemort try to get Harry on his side, or would Voldemort see a potentially powerful enemy in Harry and kill him instead?  Harry was not afraid of death.  However, even if Harry admitted to being the Parselmouth, he doubted that Magnolia would be let off without further torturing.  Best to deny the truth and try to buy some time, maybe he'd find a way to escape.  Harry then decided some pleading wouldn't hurt.

"Please, we really didn't see any Parselmouths!  Honest!  It really hurt, don't do that again!  Please don't hurt either of us!"  Harry pretended to cry, which wasn't so hard as the pain caused by the earlier curses still stabbed him all over.

Voldemort stared at the display of tears.  He narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the boy in front of him, apparently afraid of pain and death.  The girl was still sobbing behind the boy.  Voldemort decided that he could not get any additional information from the children.  He looked towards the gathered Death Eaters, and motioned some of them forwards.

"Take them upstairs and lock them up."

~*~

Lily walked into the kitchen and began putting food away in the pantry.  The house was oddly quite, and Lily wondered if Magnolia had calmed down yet.

She finally seated herself comfortably and, curious as to what Skeeter wrote this time, she read the article about the sighted Parselmouth.  The article was quite a long one, detailing other well-known Parsemouth's and their lives.  From what Skeeter wrote, all Parselmouth's were evil wizards who killed people for the joy of showing off their powers.  Lily sighed, that was not what Voldemort was like; he killed people in order to reach his goal, only partly for showing off his powers.

An unfamiliar black eagle-hawk seemed to fly in from nowhere, and Lily reached up tentatively to accept the scroll that was tied to it's leg.  The eagle-hawk seemed to stare at her with narrowed eyes as she unrolled the parchment and read it.  Her eyes widened and she ran to the living room, threw some floo powder in, and stepped in.

"Leaky Cauldron!"

~*~

THE END

No, not really, exam stress has made me weird.  Anyway, was gonna try and finish writing Harry's escape, but it was taking too long and no doubt you guys wouldn't mind it up in a couple of days anyway.  I could do it now but I haven't thought of every detail yet.  Besides, this chapter was getting kinda  long and rushed.  This is not as much of a cliffhanger as the last chapter though, so you guys can't get too frustrated at me!  ^_^

If you have any ideas (with reason) what animal Harry should become, let me know!  I have some idea, but I'll consider other suggestions.  Let me know in an email to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au, or leave a review.

See ya in a coupladays!

~ultrasoul


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Deary me, my gratitude for your patience and my apologies for my lateness!  My excuse… I mean, reason for being late is that the computer in which my chapters resided refused to work.  As soon as it was fixed, I was away for a week, and after that I just haven't found time to post.  For all those of you who care, I found out that I passed all my exams!  Yay!

Thanks for all reviews:

**AmyPotter14- **I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the encouragement!

**Arizosa-** sorry about my little weirdness at the end of the last chapter, never fear, it still continues!

**Kateri-** You're the second person who said that Harry should be some sort of cat, and I totally agree with your reasons.  I have considered it, and you'll see what he becomes in the next chapter hopefully (escape was gonna be this chapter, but I was having some trouble with the actual escape!  ^_^)

**Gallandro-83-** Well, I'm kinda making Magnolia up as I go along.  I mean, she's spoilt, that's all I know so far, but that's not very deep, is it?  I have taken your suggestion into account, and you'll see what he becomes in the next chapter hopefully.  If you know the manga Inuyasha you may be able to guess what animal he becomes, and I'll give reasons for a magical creature in the next chapter.  I agree that I didn't want Harry to be magical just so that that he's different, but there were all these properties I wanted him to have… especially flying… showdown between Harry and Lucius or Voldie?  We'll see… but they will realise that Harry is not oHarry, still thinking about how to do that though… as for Magnolia getting her just desserts, I didn't want to be too mean to her, you'll see in this chapter.  I have this stupid belief that Dudley will be straightened in the future, silly huh?  Thanx for your awesome review!

**Rhiain-** Thank you for the review and encouragement, hope this chapter is to your expectations!

**Sailor Sol-** Yes, of course Harry's gonna be the hero of the day, or will he?  As of now I'm still a little unsure of how they're getting out of the mess, I'll think of something, but thanks for the review anyway, sorry for the lateness!

**Jasmine Black-** I'm pleased that you thought chp9 was a good chapter, hope you like this one as well.  Just don't be too disappointed that they haven't quite escaped yet!

**Smile7499-** Thank you for the compliments, and I'm glad that I'm doing something right with my story!  Enjoy the chapter!

**ShortySC22-** Sorry this chapter couldn't come much sooner due to problems I've already discussed.  I had thought about a dragon, but aren't they really big?  And I didn't want Harry to be a huge animal.  I also considered a snake, but you'll see what he becomes in the next chapter hopefully!  Thank you for the suggestions.

**Potter-Freak123-** Wolf?  That's different to most of my other suggestions.  I had considered a dog, but not a wolf.  Thank you for the suggestion, you'll see what he becomes in the next chapter probably!

**Roxy-** well, Harry will tell someone that he's a parselmouth… eventually.  As for why Voldemort wants to know who the parselmouth is, Remus pretty much guesses why in this chapter.  A fox?  Well, that is an idea, thanks for the suggestion.  I agree that Harry turning into a griffin is a little typical and just because he's in that house doesn't mean he'll turn into the house symbol.  I've taken snake into consideration, but you'll see what he becomes next chapter hopefully.  Hope this chapter was up soon enough for you!  

**Jackey-** thank you for the encouragement.  I actually passed all of my exams, and I did well too, to my own surprise!  Mag may be spoilt, but I don't think she's stupid so no, she doesn't tell on Harry.  How will they escape?  I'd like to know too!  You'll see an attempt in this chapter, but no actual escape!

**WeasleyTwinsLover1112-** Well, I had intended to have this chapter up sooner, but I've already discussed my reasons, please forgive my lateness, and hope this chapter satisfies you!

**Savi2070-** thanks for the review(s)!  Well, you get to see what Magnolia thinks of Harry in this chapter.  This chapter is pretty much the same lengths as the later chapters, and in fact I wanted to make it longer but decided you guys probably wanted a chapter seeing as it's been delayed long enough.  I do intend for Voldie to find out Harry can speak to snakes, I'm still thinking about how I'm gonna do that though.  As for Harry's animagus form, phoenix is a good idea, and I've seen a lot of other fanfic authors do that for good reason, and I even considered doing a phoenix, but I kinda wanted to be different, you'll see ^_^.

**Chocolate Frog-** Sorry about the later than intended update, hope this satisfies your, uh, addiction?  ^_^ Hopefully the next one should be up sooner, although I'm making no promises in case the computer stuffs up again!

**Melissa-** I think in a lot of cases the baddies always underestimate the goodies, otherwise they can't lose!  So oVoldemort does underestimate Harry and that will probably be one of the key factors in Harry's and Magnolia's escape (I hope, as I still haven't written it yet!).  I do believe that Magnolia, although spoilt, can be changed (yes, I believe in second chances!  ^_^) I mean, if we were taught to be selfish, then we can be taught not to be, right?  Okay, sorry, I'm babbling on a bit.  Thanks for the review, apology accepted for your lateness ^_^, and I hope this chapter satisfies!

**JaguarRose-** ^_^ here's the update, hope you enjoy.  Thanks for the review!

**Zylexiaa-** here's the update, enjoy!

Chapter dedicated to **Gallandro83** for the very in-depth reasoning for what Harry should become, and to **Savi2070** for the 4 separate reviews!

Disclaimer:  Magnolia belongs to me.  Oh, so does that big man and the old woman, but who wants them?  Everything else belongs to JKR.

Chapter 10

~*~

Lily stepped out into the pub, eyes searching frantically for her husband and his best friend.  Not seeing any of the Marauders, she headed for the door, hearing Tom call out after her, "didn't you want something, Mrs. Potter?"

Diagon Alley was very crowded; a lot of young wizards and witches flowed in and out of shops, happy families wondering the street.  Lily sighed as she remembered the fun that she had the other day with her family.  Why, oh why, did darkness surround the light?  But wasn't there some saying: with light there are shadows?

As she approached the Magical Menagerie, she saw James and oSirius talking with an elderly couple; oSirius pretended to look interested, nodding his head and taking notes.  James was asking the questions.  There were two other young wizards standing by listening to the interview with expressions of amusement.

"So, just two hours ago, you saw a man speak to the snakes in the Menagerie?"  James asked, looking at oSirius' notes.

The old witch nodded furiously, her eyes wide, "yes, and a scary man he was!  His face looked positively like that of a snake's…"

"And he had a forked tongue…" the old wizard added, trembling at the thought.

"And he had slits for eyes, and when he saw us, he wobbled around as if ready to strike…" the old witch wobbled on her feet, acting out the movements.

The two other wizards looked up and saw Lily approaching.  They smiled and went over to her.

"Hey Lils!  Did you come for some entertainment as well?"  The blond-haired, shorter wizard asked, a gleeful expression on his face.

Lily just stared at the blonde for a moment, then looked at the other wizard, who was thin and dark-haired.  The dark-haired wizard smiled, "Snuffles derives pleasure from seeing old eccentric people being scared out of their wits."

The blonde wizard slapped him playfully on the arm, "are you implying that I'm sadistic...?"

"Enough!"  Lily suddenly cried, realising that it was Sirius and Remus in disguise.  This caught oSirius' and James attention as well, and they both came towards her.  The old couple continued talking to thin air, making wild gestures with their arms.

"What's up?"  oSirius asked.

Lily's hand trembled as she retrieved the letter from her robes.  James snatched the letter and his eyes quickly scanned it's contents, paling slightly:

_Dear Mr. and Mrs. Potter,_

_            After spotting your children wandering the streets all alone, my loyal servants have brought them to our care.  They seemed eager to prolong their stay, and therefore you can retrieve them on Thursday afternoon at Malfoy Manor._

_V_

_PS- I am not too fond of meeting too many people, so just keep our meeting small and family only._

oSirius, reading over his shoulder, snorted, "yeah right, he says that as though he's some child-care nurse.

Sirius and Remus looked at the letter.  Sirius paled, "oh no, they've got Harry and Magnolia!  Why would they want them?"

"Apart from the fact that they like to torture anyone, regardless of age, sex, and wizardry background?  I'd say that they want any information we find on the Parselmouth," Remus deduced, "or, they want to see if you can spill the beans about the secret to unlocking his powers."

James put an arm over Lily's shoulder to comfort her, and shook his head, "I think it's the former.  Several years ago he kidnapped Magnolia and tried to see if Dumbledore would share the secret, but he wouldn't.  It was a good thing we had a tracking charm on Magnolia, Dumbledore himself went and retrieved her.  We've had several attacks on our home in the past because of our relationship with Dumbledore, but they were not successful because of the wards we place on the house and it's occupants, and they realized that Dumbledore wouldn't tell him even if it cost the lives of our loved ones."

"But we haven't had any success looking for this Parselmouth anyway!  He probably doesn't even exist!"  oSirius exclaimed.

Remus sighed, "I doubt that matters to Voldemort.  There's a chance that he exists, and if he does, Voldemort would want him by his side.  Having the gift to speak to snakes is an indication of power, is it not?  Voldemort needs that now that he is powerless."

"So what are we going to do?"  Lily looked around at the solemn faces.

"Well, better not discuss this here, we've got three days until Thursday.  Let's apparate to Moony's," James decided.  And the five wizards apparated away.

~*~

As the Death Eaters led Harry and Magnolia through the corridors and upstairs, Harry's eyes scanned his surroundings, taking in as much as he could.  Harry had thought the room where Voldemort sat with the roaring fire had looked familiar, and as Harry walked the corridor he became certain that he had seen this place before.  He knew that he had never been there physically, and he remembered abrubtly that he saw it in a dream where an old man was killed by a still weakened Voldemort.  He felt slightly sick at the memory, and continued to scan the place to see if there was an escape route.  Right now, he couldn't escape, what with being surrounded by six Death Eaters, a bit much for two children in Harry's opinion.

The corridor was dark, only lit by a weak light bulb in the ceiling.  The wooden floor creaked as they walked down them towards a set of stairs at the end of the corridor.  Two Death Eater's walked ahead of them, one on either side of Harry and Magnolia, and two behind them.  They stayed in this formation as they ascended the stairs, and Harry saw that the upstairs hallway was shorter than the one on the floor below.  Harry and Magnolia were taken to a room two doors down, and were shoved in.  The two of them turned around as the door slammed shut and locked.  The bonds on their wrists magically disappeared.

"We shall be seeing you soon," one of the Death Eaters hissed, and the group walked away.  Harry was surprised that none of them were left guarding the door; then again, they probably didn't expect the 'children' to be able to escape.

Harry looked around the room; it was relatively big and contained a large king-sized bed in the middle, a desk in front of the small window, a large comfortable-looking couch in the corner, and a door leading to an ensuite on the side.  The wooden floors were dusty, and a single candle flickered in a candle-holder, even though it was not dark.  Magnolia took several steps into the room, then turned abruptly.

"This is all your fault!"  She hissed, eyes glaring daggers at Harry.

Harry gulped, "I…"

"If you hadn't spoken to those stupid snakes, You-Know-Who wouldn't be looking for you, would he?"  She continued in a low whisper.  Harry wondered if she did so because she was extremely angry or if she didn't want to be overheard.

"I only spoke to them because they wanted help…"

"Oh, being helpful now, are we?  You would have helped a lot if you never came!"

Harry was silent for a moment.  There was truth in her words; if he had never come, then none of this would have happened.  But he had a chance to meet a family he never had, to experience his birthday as he never had, did he regret that?  Obviously not.  He was about to voice his thoughts when Magnolia continued.

"If it hadn't been for you, dad would still love me and I'll still be at home and safe!"  She strode over to the bed and sat down, burying her face in her hands as she let out sobs she had withheld from the face of the Death Eaters and Voldemort.

"I know it's my fault," Harry said quietly, "that you are in this situation, but I don't regret getting to know your family.  I've never had a family of my own who loved me, and I'll only get that for the holidays, you have that for your whole life."  Harry walked over to Magnolia and sat down beside her.  He debated on whether or not he should put an arm around her to comfort her, but decided against it as he didn't know if she would have appreciated the contact.

Magnolia continued to cry, and it seemed a few hours passed by, even though it was only a few minutes, before Harry voiced his curiosity.

"Why didn't you tell Voldemort that it was me who spoke with the snakes?"

Magnolia glared at him with tear-filled eyes, "I'm not stupid you know.  If I told him, then he probably would have killed me!"  The tears ran down her face, "no need for a little girl once he finds the Parselmouth!"

She continued sobbing for a while.  Her crying finally subsided and she whispered, "thank you."

Harry jumped, surprised at the sudden change in tone, "what for?"

"For taking that curse for me," Magnolia wiped the remaining tears from her face, "I'm scared."

Putting an arm around her shoulder and giving her shoulder a squeeze, Harry said softly, "I know, and I'll find a way out of here."

~*~

oSirius returned from his quick trip to Malfoy Manor, with the news that Harry and Magnolia weren't there, confirming their thoughts that Voldemort would keep them some-place else until Thursday came.

"Voldemort knows that we don't believe he'll let our children go.  Since when did the evil bastard keep his word?"  James sighed, "And he probably guessed that we'd attempt to save them before Thursday, if we could find them that is."  oHarry sat on the couch, having been taken home by his parents from the skateboard park, he just sat there and stared at a spot in mid-air.

"Think we should contact Dumbledore and ask for some help?"  Lily asked everyone.

James shook his head, "Voldemort would probably expect us to call for help, as there's no way we'll see our children until Thursday, and besides, he said that he doesn't want too many people.  If there were more people, there'd be more chance of him hurting our children needlessly."

"Ah, but we have an advantage!"  oSirius exclaimed.

Everyone looked at him questioningly, and he said, "he doesn't know there are two Remus's, and two Sirius's."

"Yes, so we can have all of us come to pick up the children, and Sirius can go around in dog form, sniffing out traps and taking out Death Eaters!"  James sat up, and his eyes brightened, however, he sighed and lowered himself again into his seat, "but is there a way we can find them before that?"

"I'll check recent apparitions in this area, see what sort of places wizards have come from and what sort of places they've been," oSirius offered.

Lily nodded, "okay, if we find out where they are before Thursday, we'll attempt a rescue, but if not…"

"Hey, we're Marauders," James said seriously, "we'll have a surprise for Moldywarts nevertheless."

~*~

It felt like several hours had gone by while Magnolia calmed down a bit and Harry surveyed the room they were in.  There wasn't much to survey, just the wooden desk that looked as though they'd collapse upon contact, the large and heavy couch, the bed, the candle in the holder, and the barred window.  By the time Magnolia settled, the sun was already low in the sky.

They had at first attempted to open the window, but it wouldn't budge, and if it could have been it open, it was quite a drop to the ground.  Not to mention there were bars on the window, very similar to what the Dursley's had put on Harry's room (or, to be precise, on Dudley's second bedroom) two years ago.

Harry had then used one of Magnolia's hair-pins to try to pick the lock on the door, while Magnolia looked around to see if there was anything useful lying around.  Apart from the furniture, there wasn't much else in the room.

The lock clicked, and Harry turned around and looked at Magnolia excitedly.  She ran to his side.  Magnolia looked to Harry, wondering why Harry stopped.

"We can either find another room without bars on the window and go from there, or we can take the stairs and find the front door," Harry said softly.

"I don't want to climb…" Magnolia started.

"But if we take the stairs, there's more chance that the Death Eaters would spot us, we'd be going through a minefield of them," Harry thought out loud.

Magnolia just glared at him, "then why do you ask?  You've seemed to have made up your mind already."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I wasn't asking, I was just thinking to myself, and now I've decided.  We can use the bedsheets to make some rope and climb out of another window."

Without waiting for a reply (as Magnolia wanted to have the last say), Harry slowly opened the door.  It seemed as though the door was recently greased, as it made no creak at all as it was pulled open.

Harry poked his head out, and seeing the coast was clear, the two of them walked out softly.  They made their way to the closest door, eyes constantly scanning their surroundings, and Harry put an ear to the door.  There was no sound inside, and holding up the candle-holder Magnolia had handed him before they left, Harry opened the door.

Although he was posed to defend himself, it was not necessary, as the room they had entered look very similar to the room they had been locked in, and there were bars on the windows there as well.  And the two of them found that all the windows on that floor were barred.

"This must be their make-shift dungeons or something, don't they usually have dungeons underground?"  Magnolia queried.

"They probably didn't have an underground place here, although I thought they would because it looks like quite an old place.  Maybe they're using those underground rooms for something else," _like torture_ Harry thought to himself, "the next best place to stash away prisoners would be the upper floors, where escape through windows would be made more difficult, and keeping watch on them would be easier.  All they need to do is patrol the first floor stairs."

"We can try the stairs now though," Magnolia stated, "I'll get another candle-holder from one of the other rooms."

"We can't beat a bunch of Death Eaters with muggle weapons (although the candle-holders couldn't be considered weapons) and we don't know how many of them there are," Harry ran a hand through his hair, "let's get back to the room they put us in, and think it out from there, just in case the Death Eaters come up and realise we can pick the lock."

And the two of them made their way to the first room they were in, and relocked the door.

~*~

"You know, no-one is supposed to have access to such information," Remus commented.

"Yeah, if no-one's supposed to know these things, one wonders why they keep records of them in the first place," James agreed.

"Well, it's not as if I had an easy time getting into that place to retrieve the info," oSirius looked at a piece of paper, "speaking of which, according to the detectors, there were a total of sixty apparations this afternoon in this area.  Most notable would be what looks like a group apparition into the area, fifteen wizards.  However, they all apparated to different places upon leaving, so we'd have a hard time checking up on all fifteen of them."

Lily sighed, she looked at oHarry, who had been silent throughout all of their discussions.  He seemed to be in shock, and Lily was not too sure how to assure him when even she realised how difficult it would be to save Magnolia and Harry.  

"They don't stand in one place once they apparate, so unless we know who and what smell to look for, Sirius wouldn't be able follow their smell," James looked to Sirius and oSirius.

"Well, as a dog I can sense some dark magic, and they've all got those awful masks.  I know what sort of material the mask is made out of, I might be able to follow that smell," oSirius said.

"But to check out all fifteen?  We better get started now," Sirius looked around, "I guess we'll split up."

oSirius made a copy of his notes, and handed one sheet to Remus, "I guess I'll go with James, you two go together, and Lily and Griff can stay here in case there's some news.  Oh, you should get in touch with Dumbledore, he should be able to help us some"

They all nodded in agreement, and left to carry out their tasks.

~*~

Harry was relatively small for his age, due to the mistreatment towards him when he was younger.  Aware of this, he knew that Magnolia and himself could not overpower Merlin-knew-how many Death Eaters roaming the lower floors of the Riddle house.

Try wandless magic again?  He didn't want to risk Magnolia's life on the chance that his magic was not stable without a wand; not to mention conjuring a simple shield had been difficult enough.

Magnolia breathed softly in her sleep; she was tired from all her crying and Harry had promised to wake her up once he thought of a plan for them to escape.  Cold lunch sat in the corner; neither of them trusted the Death Eaters, not to mention their cooking.  The Death Eater had informed them that dinner will be 'served' at seven thirty.  It was now quarter to seven.

The windows were all barred, and the only option left was the stairs down to the lower levels where Voldemort and his Death Eaters were.  What about an attic?  They couldn't find it and besides, it would be difficult to get outside from the attic.  What was at their disposal?  The bed-sheets, a few candle-holders and candles, toilet paper from the ensuite, a toilet brush, the large couch, the bed, and some rickety wooden furniture.

What if he found a way to snatch one of the Death Eater's wands?  Then he may have a chance…

"Magnolia, wake up," Harry nudged her softly.  She slowly opened her eyes, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Griff, is mum gonna tell us off for playing all night?"  She yawned.

Harry smiled slightly to himself, and shook his head, "Magnolia, it's Snitch."

Her eyes widened as she remembered her predicament, "oh.  So what do we do?"

"Have you ever done any wandless magic?"  He asked, looking at her expectantly.

Magnolia frowned a little as she thought, "yeah, several times I blew up some things, why?"  Harry thought that she must have blown up the objects due to anger at not getting something she wanted, but didn't voice his thoughts.

"You see, when we feel strong emotions, our magic becomes stronger and we direct that at certain things, we harness it.  For example, you may have broken those things because you were angry and felt the need for such, er, destruction.  I blew up my aunt once when I was very angry with her…"

"Really?  Who?"

"Oh, you probably won't know her, but she's Uncle Vernon's sister…"

"She must be really ugly," Magnolia stated simply, and Harry couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah, she was.  Anyway, what I'm saying is that we can concentrate on our strong emotions together and try to make the bars disappear…"

"I don't want to climb," Magnolia said, eyes widening.

"I didn't say we were going to climb.  Making the bars disappearing would be difficult enough, not to mention transfiguring something into rope, or conjuring rope.  And with these tatty bed-sheets, I doubt they'd hold our weight while we climb down.  Also, while we climb down, a Death Eater may be watching the nice night outside and spot us, or Death Eaters on patrol might spot us.  So, we'll rip the bed-sheet to make a rope, and hang it outside.  When the Death Eaters come to check up on us, they'll think we climbed out and they'll send out a group or two to look for us.  The watch on the first floor wouldn't be as secure, and we can try to get out from the stairs."

Magnolia looked at Harry in awe, "that actually sounds like a good plan, a true Marauder plan."

Harry blushed, "come on, let's hold the bars together," Harry thought about his experience with the wandless shield, "think about how scared you are of the Death Eaters, how scared you are of Voldemort.  Think about how angry you are that you aren't at home playing computer games, how angry you are… at me for causing all this to happen…" Harry watched as Magnolia had her eyes closed, and her face was contorted into an expression of pain, a frown marring her forehead, "think of how much you hate the bars for being there, and think that the bars aren't there."

Harry then closed his eyes and thought of the unfairness of the situation, how Magnolia didn't deserve to be here, how angry he was at Voldemort and his minions, how afraid he was for their lives, and how much he hated the bars on the window, and before he knew it, his hand was gripping nothing.  His eyes popped open and stared into Magnolias.

"It worked!"  She whispered.  They both looked at the non-existent bars, and to their relief, the window had disappeared as well.

Harry just nodded stiffly, then turned to the bed, "now it's time to make our rope."

The two of them worked together on the bed-sheets, ripping pieces and tying them together to make a rope.  They both worked silently and quickly, and finished in less than ten minutes.  Then they pulled the ends of the ropes as though they were doing tug-of-war, so that the rope looked a little more stretched, and had to stop putting force in their pulls when the rope started to rip.  They then hung the rope out of the window, tying the end to the leg of the large couch.

"Do you think they'll believe we climbed out the window?"  Magnolia frowned at the tatty looking rope.

Harry shrugged, "we'll just have to see, won't we?"  He looked at his watch, fifteen more minutes, "come on," Harry quickly picked the lock, and carefully locked the door again after they were out of the room.  They made their way to the room across from the one they had been locked in, and hid under the bed.  With the door slightly open, they could make out the shadows of people coming in and out of their old room, and they could also hear everything that went on outside.

True to their word, two Death Eaters came up the stairs at seven thirty and stood outside the room they were in before.

"Potter, and Potter, your dinner."

Harry heard the door open, and a gasp of surprise, quick footsteps, and then, "they escaped!"

"What do we do!?" This voice was slightly panicked, obviously afraid of Voldemort's wrath.

"What else?  Alert everyone else, send them out, they can't be too far from here…" _too right there Harry thought to himself._

The footsteps were hurried as the Death Eaters quickly made their way down, Magnolia looked at Harry, and he nodded.  The two of them crawled out from their hiding place and made their way out to the top of the stairs.  Candle-holders in hand, they made their way down the stairs quietly.  After four flights of stairs, they were on the ground level and, out of his sketchy memories of his dreams, he led the way to where he thought the back door was.

It seemed as though all the Death Eaters were outside looking for them, and hope flared in Harry's heart until he heard voices around the corner of the hallway, and Harry motioned for Magnolia to stop while he stepped forward quietly and risked a quick peek; two Death Eaters were standing in front of a pot-plant.  Harry tip-toed back to where Magnolia was and whispered his plan in her ear.  She looked slightly pale as she nodded her head.  They crept back to the corner, and Magnolia let out a short scream.

The voices around the corner silenced, and a gruff voice said quietly, "did you hear that?"

"That might be the girl!"  The other voice said excitedly, "wands out!" And two sets of footsteps approached the corner.

Harry's hand was slightly slippery on the candle-holder as his hands sweated from nervousness.  The Death Eaters were getting closer.  As they turned the corner, Magnolia tripped the first one with the candle-holder, and Harry pounced on the first Death Eater, hitting him over his head with the candle holder and grabbing his wand.  Taken by surprise, the second Death Eater lost precious seconds to raise his wand as Harry stunned both the second Death Eater and the first.  

Magnolia looked slightly impressed.  Harry motioned for her to follow him, and they made their way to the door.

Outside, the street-lights from the roads cast eerie shadows.  There was a very tall brick wall out the back, and both silently agreed that they will attempt the wall, with the help from the trees lining the backyard, rather than risk circling to the front and being seen by the Death Eaters.

However, Magnolia's fake scream earlier must have alerted other Death Eaters to their location as someone yelled, "they've gone out the back!"

Harry and Magnolia exchanged a fearful glance and ran to the side of the house, attempting to make their way around the large house to the front gate.  Harry heard Death Eaters behind them, and quickly pulled Magnolia into some bushes as a stunner flew past them.  They continued to scamper towards the front gate, using the bushes to shield themselves.  They turned to the front of the house, and quickly ran to the front gate.  They almost made it when a leg-locker curse hit Harry and he fell flat on his face.  Luckily, the wand was still in his fist, and he saw a Death Eater step out from a bush near the front gate, about to grab Magnolia, and stunned him.  Magnolia turned around, but Harry frantically motioned for Magnolia to go.

"Go!  Leave me…"

Magnolia stared wide-eyed at Harry as he was stunned, and turned quickly on her heels and ran for it.  She risked a glance over her shoulder to see a Death Eater taking the wand out of Harry's hand and then three more Death Eaters emerging from around the house.  Knowing the danger of staying in the empty street for too long, Magnolia climbed into the back-yard of other homes as she tried to lose the Death Eaters pursuing her, hearing curses behind her wake.  To her relief, after cutting through a dozen back yards, she could no longer hear any Death Eaters behind her.  She crouched in some bushes and took in lungful after lungful of air.  After her heart-beat had slowed down to an almost regular speed, she approached the front door of a nearby house and knocked.

A big bold man answered the door and glared down at Magnolia, a bottle of beer in his hand and his stomach bulging under his tight grey t-shirt.  She gulped as she gathered her nerves and said in a scared voice, "hello mister.  I am lost.  Could I please borrow the phone so that I could ring my parents?"

The man seemed to think for a moment, taking in the state of Magnolia's clothes and hair, then sneered, "look kiddo, this isn't the Salvation Army, now scram!" And the door was slammed in her face.

Magnolia's temper flared, and as she left the property, she noted the big number '7' on the mailbox and remembered the street name.  _'Once I'm out of this mess I'll be back, I promise.  You'll regret that, you whale of a man, no-one messes with a Marauder's daughter and gets away with it!'_  She thought to herself.  She made her way to the next house, only to find out that the old lady, with knitting in her hands, didn't have a phone in her place.  Greatly disheartened, Magnolia looked up and down the street, and made her way to another street, and looked up and down it again.  After jogging another block, she finally found a phone-booth and hurried to it.

Once she was in the booth, she picked up the phone and remembered her mother's lessons about muggle telephones and making calls.  She remembered the number for reverse calls and dialled it in.  After speaking to an operator, there was a ring tone, and then Lily's voice sounded from the other end of the line.

"Mum?" Magnolia said excitedly.

"Magnolia?  Are you okay?  Where are you?"

"I'm okay," she said bravely, "I'm near a street called…"

Unbeknownst to her, a Death Eater had crept up on Magnolia while she was in the phone-booth, and blew up the phone in her hand, glass from the phone-booth window flying everywhere.  Magnolia's heart jumped, and she was surprised that she got but two or three of the flying shards of glass, the Death Eater must've wanted her unharmed and shielded her from flying glass.  She turned and looked to see who did it, only to see a wand pointed at her face.

~*~

As Sirius, oSirius, James, and Remus left, Lily made her way to the fireplace.  She was ready to call Dumbledore when there was a knock on the door.

"Harry dear, could you get that for me?"  oHarry stood up silently and made his way to the door.  oRemus came in and looked around.

Lily turned from the fireplace and looked at him.  oRemus said, "is everything okay?  I heard that Sirius was in the ministry before, and as it was a rare occurrence, I thought there might have been some case I could help with."

"Oh Remus, it's Magnolia and Harry…" the phone suddenly rang, and Lily, who was standing right next to it, grabbed it.

"Hello, Potter residence, Lily speaking," her voice had converted to her polite teaching voice, but changed suddenly as her eyes widened, "Magnolia!" oHarry and oRemus looked at her, oHarry's an expression of hope, and oRemus' an expression of confusion, "are you okay?  Where are you?"

Lily listened intently, but the line suddenly went dead.

"Mum?  Is Magnolia okay?"  oHarry asked after some silence.

"The line went dead," Lily said softly.  She looked at the ground for a moment in thought, then there was a flicker of hope.

"Harry, you stay here, we don't want any of Voldemort's Death Eaters seeing you.  Remus, we've used a tracking charm on the others.  Can you get James and Sirius, and I'll get Sirius and the other Remus."

~*~

AN: Sorry, my bed beckons me, and how can I refuse such promises of peaceful slumber?  I can't believe that Harry and Magnolia are still captured, I guess they aren't escaping until the next chapter.  Geez, I sure am dragging this fic out.  Hope you don't mind it!

A lot of people have had ideas about what animagus form Harry should take, and I have taken into account all of them and have finally decided on one.  It's a magical one, it's not a phoenix, nor is it a griffin.  And no, it's not a basilisk (not very Harry anyway).  If you do not want Harry as a magical animal, please suggest an alternative with reason, and I may consider it.  Let me know at tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au, or leave a review.  Thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

AN: I know, you've been waiting FOREVER for my chapter, and I doubt you've clicked on my chapter to read a long author's note, so it's just gonna be a short one (and a VERY long one at the end).  This is quite a long chapter, almost twice my usual length, so I hope it makes up for the unacceptably long wait.

Thank you to all reviewers, hope I don't miss anyone and if I do I apologise beforehand!

**Tanya Dinocrisis01: **Thanks for the review!

**Kateri:** I'm glad you liked that chapter, hope you enjoy this one as well!

**Jen: ** Thanks for the review.  A feathered serpent?  That's different, and your reasoning was sound, but as you'll see in this chapter, he'll become… you'll see.  Thanks for the suggestion!  A unicorn with a dark coat is a good idea, and I do agree that there is a darker side to him, and you'll see how I chose Harry's form to look cute but can also be ferocious.

**Jasmine Black:** Have you finished your fic yet???  I'll be sure to look at it next time I get the chance, thanks for the review, and of course Mags and Harry will be okay, I wouldn't hurt a hair on their heads!  Although if new ideas come to me, that may change… ^_^

**Authoress: **Thanks for your review, and I'm glad the 'oSirius' and 'oRemus' thing worked, I was afraid that if I started giving them different names or nicknames everyone will just get confused.

**Savi2070-** thanks for the long review!  I couldn't had Mags escaping, and I don't think it's unrealistic in the least, as she does know the Muggle ways better than the Death Eaters, she could use phones and stuff.  And don't worry, Harry's not a dragon, you'll see!  I'm glad you don't think I'm dragging this fic out, but I had planned Harry to have escaped in the last chapter.  Oh well, and my sister did tell me to divide this chapter into to two, but I told her then I'd be dragging it out TOO much.  

**Anon- **yes, they finally do get to escape!  But don't expect something brilliant, it might be a little anti-climatic… (sigh).

**Clover-** thanks fo the long review, and I'm glad you think it's unique.  I've never been muh of a creative writer, and I've certainly seen quite a few dimension travelling ones.  But as you think it's good… well, hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you!  And I'm glad that you relate to my sense of humour ^_^.

**JaguarRose-** I'm glad that you approve of Harry being magical, as I know I myself am not too fond of seeing Harry turn into something totally amazing regardless of how beautiful the animal is.  I absolutely agree the phx/griff are overdone, and you won't have to put up with it in my fic.  I don't picture Harry as a stag anyway, and I agree that Harry's a different person to his father, no matter what the physical resemblance, and you are correct that I have the same thoughts as you!  ^_^  The children do escape, finally, but as I've said, I hope you didn't expect something overly brilliant, as my muse has left me for quite a while now and I had to do this on my own L

**AmyPotter14-** thanks for the review, I hope you find this chapter satisfactory!  ^_^

**Gold Silk-** I am immensely flattered that you are enjoying my little (well, maybe not so little) ficcie.  To answer your question, actually, you didn't want the question answered, so whether or not people find out that Harry's a Parselmouth is for me to know and for you to find out ^_^.

**Bookwrm580-** I'm glad that you can't stop reading my fic, but please don't forget that whatever work you are doing is probably more important than reading what I write (I know, I'm a hypocrite!) ^_^.  I never really considered a dragon for Harry, I just don't really think it's him.  But you'll see what he is…

**SiriusAboutMarauders-** You'll see that Harry's form is quite good for sneaking around ^_^, and it's surprising that you think my fic makes any sense at all!  Hope you enjoy this chapter!  Btw, like your sign-in name!

**Lily-** Sorry, Harry's not a snake, but thank you for your input!  As for your suggestions, I had been thinking of  having them travel to yet another dimension, and now that you mention it, you've hardened my resolve to do just that!  I've taken most of your ideas into account, and your ideas will come to fruitation in the next chapter!  ^_^  Thanks again!

**ShortySC22-** You know Inuyasha?  Great manga, isn't it?  I think I've only read up to about 26/7 as well, I've kinda lost track as it's so hard to get it where I live, not to mention I get the Japanese ones, so even harder to get!  I heard that they made an Inuyasha movie, have you seen it?  Thanks for the review, you'll see what Harry's form is in this chapter!

**Arizosa-** I'm glad you think the story flows, as I have such long breaks between doing chapters and putting them up that I'm afraid that they don't flow very well.  Thanks for staying with this, and I hope I don't disappoint you!

**Greyhound Master- **thank you for the review, hope you enjoy this chapter!

**JerseyPike-** I do agree that the girl needs a smack, I really do detest spoilt behaviour.  Yes, two Snapes, this should be fun… ^_^

**Cecilia Orechio-** Hey, how's things?  Thanks for the review, as always.  You'll find out what happens to everyone in the chapter, I finally let them all escape!  ^_^  Hope you enjoy my update!

**Wah!- **sorry this update wasn't sooner, but I'm sure my length would make up for it!  Thanx for the review!

**Natalie-** thank you for your review, hope this chapter was worth your wait!

**SNdReAmer-** here's the chapter, thanx for the review!

**Mella DeRanged-** I'm glad you find this an interesting story, hope this chapter doesn't sway that compliment ^_^.

**Carmezz-** thanks for your review.  You'll see in this chapter that Harry becomes neither a phoenix nor a griffin.  Although I like both creatures, I think they're a little overdone, but please don't throw tomatoes at me for making him what he is in this chapter ^_^!  Thanks for the input, hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Sweet A.K-** thanks for the input, wolf was an idea I had flying around in my head for a while, but then someone planted 'cat' in my head, and with great reason, so I just HAD to go with that.  You'll see… anyway, thanks for the encouragement, I really need it at a time when I don't feel like writing (especially when overloaded with a load of assignments I don't understand ~_^)

**DayStarofTwilight-** wow, thanks for the long review, and I'm always overwhelmed when someone says they find my stuff interesting!  Thank you for the input on what you think Harry should become, I'm getting so many good ideas for Harry's form, I have a feeling I may have to write another story just to incorporate them!  But that won't happen for a long while.  A lot of your suggestions I had considered, like an eagle, or a lion, but you'll see… I haven't read Fantastic Beasts yet, was it good?  That would have been very helpful during my animal-choosing process.  Oh well.  What's a Chimaera, or a Nundu?  As I think I said to someone else, I don't really see Harry as the snake type, regardless of the fact he could speak their language.  I guess I just perceive them as a little evil, as I'm not too fond of them.  I don't watch Inuyasha, I didn't know they had it on TV (probably not in Australia, anyway) but I've read up to about 26 I think, I've lost track of what's been happening though as I can only get some manga every now and then, rather than the whole thing at a time.  Is the cartoon in Japanese?  Anyway, thanx again for your long review!

**Melissa-** sorry my update took SO long!  It's difficult to make someone totally horrible when I'm of the belief that MOST people can be good.  I think that going through a scare has changed her attitude a little.  Harry and Magnolia finally escape, and your question of who the other Parseltongue is is answered in this chapter, although it may be a little anticlimatic.  I don't intend for him to find out there's another universe, although if I ever finish this and do a sequel, it may happen.  Thanx for the long review, and hope you enjoy this!

**Lilyoda- **thanx for your review.  I didn't think I should make Magnolia too much of a brat since she _is_ related to our beloved Harry.  Hope you enjoy the update!

This chapter is dedicated to Mella deRanged, my 200th reviewer!

~*~

Chapter 11

Harry had the distinct impression of dejavu as he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling with the single light-bulb.  He sat up and looked around; Voldemort sat in the chair facing him, about twenty or so Death Eaters surrounded them in a circle, and Magnolia was pushed to the centre of the circle.  Harry's eyes widened in surprise as he saw a large snake circling Voldemort's feet.

Voldemort looked to the Death Eater who pushed Magnolia forward, and said in a cold voice, "where did you find her?"

The Death Eater had his head bowed in respect and said in a smug voice, "she was in one of those muggle glass rooms with a fellytone in her hand."  He must have realised by the look on Voldemort's face that that was not a good thing, and quickly knelt before Voldemort, who did not look the least bit happy.

"Are you aware of the application of the 'fellytone'?"  He said dangerously.

"They are… uh… communicating devices!"  The Death Eater realised now what that implied.

"Yes, which means that the girl," he glared at Magnolia briefly, causing her to tremble, "could have informed her parents where she was!"

"Master, I assure you… she had only talked in the fellytone for a mere few seconds before I blew it up… I doubt she had time to tell them where she was, not to mention I doubt she was aware of where she was," the Death Eater explained, wondering briefly what punishments the end of the day would bring.

"Really?"  Voldemort wondered.  _"I permit for you to have a bite out of this man, and of the two standing behind him for falling for the children's ploy, you may inject some poison," he hissed to the snake._

"You will be punished for allowing the girl to contact her parents, and you two," he looked at the two Death Eaters standing behind him, "will be punished for falling for the children's ploy."  As soon as he finished his sentence, the large snake sprung at the man kneeling on the floor and clamped it's fanged mouth on the man's upper arm.  He cried out, but didn't stand up for fear of angering Voldemort further.  Magnolia closed her eyes and looked away as the snake advanced on the next victim, Harry stared horrified at the blood dripping from the corners of it's mouth.

The edge of Voldemort's mouth curved as he leaned forward with a glint in his scarlet eyes that stared at Harry, "I was quite surprised to be informed that you nearly managed to escape.  The bars on the window were quite well put in, do you care to tell me how they were removed?"

Magnolia moved closer to Harry, but Harry was frightened at what the snake was hissing:

_"I am hungry Master.  The older humans do not taste as nice.  Are these children for me?"_

Voldemort looked down and hissed back, _"they are to stay safe for another three days.  After that, you may feast upon them as you wish.  Although you may be able to feast upon them sooner if their relatives track them here"  Voldemort looked at Magnolia's and Harry's frightened faces (though they were frightened for different reasons) and his mouth curled into the evil smile again, "I know that you used magic to remove those bars.  How else could you dispose of those bars entirely?  Now, how did you do the magic to remove them?"_

Harry was still slightly shocked from what Voldemort had said to the snake, but still registered what Voldemort said.  Did Voldemort want to know how to do wandless magic now?  Surely a wizard like him should know how children managed wandless magic, but perhaps he did not know how to harness the raw power?  Voldemort was powerless, perhaps he wished to teach his Death Eaters the theory of doing wandless magic?  Harry couldn't help smiling inwardly at the thought of Voldemort standing in front of a classroom and his Snape-like reaction at a Death Eater doing something Neville-like in class.  Or maybe Voldemort wished to assess their abilities?

"I… I was scared, and I wished that the bars weren't there so that Magnolia and I could escape.  Magnolia was crying, and I wanted to be able to escape because both of us want to be home.  And then… we looked out the window and the bars weren't there!"  Harry stuttered.  There was no need for Voldemort to know that the two of them did wandless magic, and that the effect was what they wanted when they did it together.

Voldemort's red eyes surveyed him, "And not only did you remove the bars and made a rope to climb out of the window, you hid in the room and waited for the Death Eaters to leave with the door open so that you could leave by the stairway.  A very… cunning plan.  Very Slytherin…" Harry paled slightly, "perhaps you children may consider joining our ranks, instead of following in the footsteps of your parents, instead of following the footsteps of failure…"

_'Failure?  Who are _you_ to talk about failure?' Harry thought to himself.  Magnolia hitched a sob beside him, and Harry pasted a look of disbelief on his face._

At the look on the children's faces, Voldemort chuckled, "I see you are stunned at the prospect of becoming one of us!  It is late in the night, you children need a good nights sleep, and I shall see you tomorrow afternoon!  But alas, punishment for your attempt to escape is needed.  Lucius!"

There was pain again, and after Harry's screaming subsided, he heard Magnolia's.  As he was about to take the curse for her again, the curse was lifted.  Voldemort motioned for several Death Eaters nearby to take them away.  They were taken to the same room, and bars were magicked onto the window again.

One of the Death Eaters turned to them, "your trick won't work again, we are watching the room from the outside as well now, and there's no way you could get out of the door."  _'Or so they think' Harry thought to himself, as the Death Eater closed and locked the door to their room and the group of them glided away back downstairs, probably rushing back to lick Voldemort's feet._

Harry turned to Magnolia, who had slumped onto the bed with tears in her eyes now.

"What happened?"  He asked softly.

"I ran away, and I was talking to mum on the phone when one of them found me!"  She cried, letting the tears full freely, and wiping them away furiously with the corner of some new bed-sheets.

"Did you tell her where we were?"

She shook her head, "I was about to tell her, when the phone blew up in my hand!"

Harry looked deep in thought for a moment, and sat down beside her, "you know what?  We might still have a chance.  I've seen in a muggle movie before that phone-calls could be traced, I'm pretty sure… mum… would know about that concept and do something like it."

Silence answered him, and he put an arm around her shoulders, "and even if they don't come, I'll figure out a way to get out of here."

"Your last plan didn't work too well, now did it?"  Magnolia said haughtily.

Harry flinched at her tone, "you should feel a little more confident; we were able to outsmart a group of evil adults, what makes you think we can't do it again?"

"The fact that there are bars on the window, and there are probably more of them now that they probably think mum and dad are coming for us?"

Harry shook his head, "they still don't know we can pick the lock on the door.  We're both exhausted from doing wandless magic, maybe… I can try something that can give us an edge," Harry thought back to his unsuccessful progress in his animagus transformation.  If he could manage the transformation, then their chances of an escape would increase.

"If you can turn into a unicorn, I can ride you and you can gallop away…" Magnolia dozed off, obviously tired from the long day.

"Not quite what I had in mind," Harry whispered in reply to Magnolia's views, and lay her down on the bed in a more comfortable position and covered her with the thin blanket.  Harry stood in the middle of the room and closed his eyes, thinking about all the theory he had learnt from his father and godfather(s), and concentrated.

~*~

"Sirius, you smell them?"

Lily had quickly located the Marauders and they made a quick trip to the local phone company, where they looked up the location from which the last call was made to their home, obliviated the operator, and made their way to the phone booth lying in the middle of the muggle street, apparantly a victim of a nasty curse.  Sirius had then tracked Magnolia's smell to a dilapitaded old house.

A large black dog jumped out from the bush and transformed with a pop into oSirius, "yep, I can smell Harry in there, and Magnolia must be with him as well, there was something like chocolate.  Does anyone know if Voldemort eats chocolate?"

"What, and ruin his reputation?"  James snorted.

Sirius shrugged, "it's better than being caught eating ice-cream, or fairy floss…"

"Okay, we get the picture," Lily interrupted, "I'm aware that Voldemort may be aware that we can trace the call, so everyone stay alert."

"This isn't the best place to discuss a plan, how about a quick apparition back home for a discussion?"  oRemus suggested.  Everyone nodded in agreement and apparated away.

~*~

Harry sat down defeated on the wooden chair at the desk.  He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and closed his eyes; he had been trying the transformation for the last hour or so, following the procedure step by step as he had been instructed, but he always lost his concentration halfway and was now exhausted from the unsuccessful attempts.  He truly was worried about what sort of animal he would become, he knew about Rita becoming a beetle and was afraid he would become something as small and insignificant.  _'Well, at least I can fly away if I become a beetle, or a fly even…" _

He opened his eyes and looked out the window; a half-moon glowed back at him, the stars littered the clear velvet sky.  He could see the outlines of peaceful homes with warm light flickering through the little square windows, and he sorely missed such warmth.  

His eyes roved around the room he was stuck in, and landed on Magnolia, sleeping peacefully.  There were trails on her face where her tears had dried.  She was so young, she didn't deserve to be here and suffer what no-one should suffer.  Her red hair reflected the moonlight, reminding him of his mother's beautiful red hair.  Her face in sleep was peaceful and looked like that of an angel.  Sure, she was a little spoilt thing, but she was raised by the Potters, by good people, surely she wasn't all that bad.  He thought back to when they were first locked in the room; her words had stung and made ignited his temper, but then when she had thanked him, he just knew that she wasn't another Dudley after all.  He needed to save her.

And that was the reason he was trying the transformation, right?  It didn't matter what animal he became, whatever he became, would still give them an edge, a chance to escape if their parents weren't coming already.  Even if he became a bug or cockcroach, he could sneak out and look for help.  If he became a snake, he could poison those who held them, attack their stinking ankles with his sharp fangs.  If he became a rat, he could make it through the little hole in wall to look for help.  If he became a vulture, then he could peck at the Death Eaters with his sharp beaks.  If he became a flobberworm… he'd worry about it when he succeeded.  What mattered was that the animagus transformation was the only thing they had over the Death Eaters downstairs, and he would do it to save Magnolia.  Well, being a Parselmouth was something he had over the Death Eaters as well, but it didn't seem as though the snake would roam up here anytime soon.

He made his way to the middle of the room again, and closed his eyes.  He concentrated on the procedure outlined by his father, Sirius, and oSirius, and let his magic flow through him.

Harry breathed quickly as he felt a change overcome him; his senses suddenly engulfed him as he could smell Magnolia lying on the bed, the old toilet in the ensuite, the grass and trees from outside.  He could slightly hear the footsteps of Death Eaters patrolling beneath him, and some muffled voices.  He opened his eyes and looked down at his body to find that it was no longer that of a humans but that of… a small cat!  He jumped onto the desk and glanced at his reflection in the window; he was a small cat, and his colour mimicked that of a labrador.

_'Yay, I'm not a rat, a cockcroach, a snake, or a flobberworm!' _he thought triumphantly as he tested his movements.  He looked at his paws and was able to extend his claws from them.  _'Cool!'_  Well, a small cat was better than a flobberworm, and a cat's agility would be of great help to sneak out of the place.  He ran around the room a few times, marvelling at it's speed and almost felt like he was flying as he leapt over the furniture.  He was slightly disappointed that he wasn't a flying animal, but the flying sensation of the leaping made up for it.  He swished his tails in elation… _tails!?_  He swished again.  Yes.  Two tails.  What type of cat was he?  He hadn't read anything in the books about a cat with two tails.  Deciding that what sort of cat he was didn't really matter, he made his way to Magnolia's side and transformed back with a small 'pop'.  He suddenly felt very exhausted and fell onto the bed beside Magnolia.  He was going to wake her up, but decided he couldn't do much while he was feeling so exhausted, and closed his eyes for a quick rest.

~*~

"If Voldemort thinks that we're going to rescue them, let him think that we called lots of people to help us," James said to the room.

Sirius was pacing the room and oSirius sat next to oHarry on one of the couches.  Lily occupied the other with oRemus, and Remus was leaning on a wall with his arms crossed.

Remus nodded his agreement, "a rescue is easiest made with the least amount of people, so I think an illusion charm is needed," he looked to Lily.

"I can make them see about fifty Auror's, but for such an illusion to seem even realistic, it would only last about fifteen minutes," Lily explained.

"I can help enforce it, so that the people in the illusion would react to any spells," oRemus offered.

"Why not just ask for help?"  oHarry asked curiously.

"Well, for one thing, calling in so many people to help at this time of the day is a little unrealistic, and besides, we don't want anymore people getting hurt," Lily replied.

"While they are fighting the illusions from the front, James and I can enter from the back," oSirius pointed to a map he had conjured after having quickly explored the place.

"And Sirius and I will stay with Lily and Remus, so that we can protect them if someone tries to hurt them, or if something happens to Padfoot or Prongs there's still us for back-up," Remus said, noticing that Sirius looked disappointed that he might not get to take part in any action, "it's best if we stay out of it if we can Sirius, it's best that they don't know that a different dimension Remus and Sirius exists."

"What about me?"  Said a quiet voice.  Everyone looked at oHarry.

"Harry dear, it's dangerous…" Lily started.

"I know it is, but you don't see me trying to stop all of you from going!"  oHarry snapped.

"Don't you speak to your mother like that!"  James reprimanded.

Remus put a hand on James' shoulder, "he just wants to help…"

"Griff, this is dangerous business.  If they see you, they'll know that another dimension exists, and that could be dangerous for everyone in this world and all the other worlds," oSirius said.

"The other-world Remus and Sirius are going, and that's just as risky!"

"We'll have transfigured out looks," Sirius supplied.

"So you can transfigure my looks as well," Harry pointed out, "and besides, I can transform now!"

"What are you talking about, Harry?"  Lily asked.

"How?  You can't do it that soon!"  James exclaimed, ignoring Lily's question.  It was obvious that although Lily was aware that they were illegal animagi, she was not informed that her sons (as she now considered Harry her son as well) would be following in the footsteps of the Marauders.

"Well, I can and I did!  Doesn't that prove that I can help then?"  oHarry said pointedly, also ignoring Lily's question.

oRemus looked at oHarry thoughtfully, "I believe that it is your natural ability and determination that has allowed you to achieve the transformation so early."

Remus nodded in agreement, "and we should know with such determination, we can't leave without him."

"Although we can stun him…" James suggested, though looking proud of oHarry nevertheless.

"And risk him not forgiving us for the rest of his life?" Sirius said, a look of pride in his eyes also.

"Not to mention, the more people on the mission, the merrier," oSirius said with fake cheerfulness, although looking just as proud.

"I get the gist of what's happened," Lily began dangerously, "and we don't have time to waste.  Harry's coming with us, we'll rescue our children, and then we shall continue the discussion once they're all safe and sound…"

oHarry looked triumphant, and held onto oSirius' arm as they apparated to the Riddle House.

~*~

Harry opened his eyes slowly.  Magnolia was breathing evenly beside him, and he took off his glasses and rubbed his face, getting rid of the discomfort of wearing his glasses to sleep, and straightening the frame a little.  He replaced them on his face and looked outside; the sky was slightly brighter, and Harry guessed that he had only been asleep for a few hours.

He shook Magnolia awake, wondering briefly if she would forget where she was like the last time he shook her awake.

"Go away Sirius, and I'll give you a bone later!"  Magnolia said as she rolled onto her side.  Harry laughed softly at her statement, and shook her harder.

"Magnolia, wake up!"  He said loudly in her ear.

"Only if you promise to take me out for icecream," she said.

Harry became slightly frustrated, and decided to stop being Mr. Nice, "Magnolia, if you don't wake up, I'm going to cut off all of your hair!"

Magnolia sat up straight away, reaching up to make sure her hair was still in place, and scowled at the beaming Harry.

"Okay, I'm awake now, what do you want?"  She said, the flickering candle accentuating her annoyed expression.

"Magnolia, I can sneak out of here and get a wand!"  He said excitedly.

Her eyes brightened at the prospect of Harry obtaining a wand, then she frowned, "why is it that you can get out to get a wand, but I can't go as well?"

Harry decided showing her would be easier than explaining, "watch this," he went to the middle of the room and transformed with a 'pop' into the small cat.

"Oh, you're so cute!"  Magnolia couldn't help exclaiming, sitting up.

Harry quickly transformed back, scowling, "well, at least that's one advantage of being an animal my size.  Anyway, I can pick the lock and sneak out in my form, then I can snatch a wand off of a Death Eater…"

He stopped suddenly as he noticed Magnolia's eyes begin to tear, "I… I don't want to stay here by myself!"

"Well, it's either you stay here by yourself while I look for a wand, or I stay here with you, and we'll be in Voldemort's hands for a few more days until he decides that he doesn't want us alive anymore," he said, patting her on her shoulder.  She became rigid at the last statement, and Harry regretted saying it instantly.  "It'll be okay, I'll only be gone for a couple of hours, and then I'll be back here with a wand, and I can fight our way out.  You'll be okay, just think, Voldemort isn't scary anymore, he doesn't have his powers… I'll be quick…" he rubbed circles on her back.  Magnolia nodded between her sniffles, and Harry put some pillows under the blanket so it looked like a body.

"If they check up on us, pretend to be asleep," Harry said, and Magnolia nodded.  He walked over to the door and picked the lock.  The lock clicked, and he let himself out and relocked the door.  "I'll be back soon," he said softly, and transformed with ease and sped down the stairs.

~*~

"Remember, if you  see red sparks within the next ten minutes, that means that we're in trouble.  Ready?"

Lily nodded, with an explosion, a group of over fifty wizards appeared.  With the invisibiliy cloak over themselves, James and oSirius, in dog form, sped towards the back of the mansion.  oRemus reinforced the illusion charm, and oHarry, Remus, and Sirius stood by their side, faces transfigured, marvelling at the illusion, keeping their eyes and ears out for any mishaps, and wands up, ready to throw hexes at Death Eaters.

As James and oSirius hurried away, James quickly glanced back and saw a load of Death Eaters barging out of the front door and throwing curses at the illusion.  He felt proud that Lily's and oRemus' skill in charms were so good, as the illusions shielded the curses and threw their own back, or what looked like their own, as all the illusions could do in return was throw an image of a curse back.

They reached the back door, and James opened the door with an 'alohomora' and they stepped in.  James closed the door behind him softly, and oSirius began to sniff out the two children.  They made their way through several scarcely furnished rooms towards a set of stairs.  oSirius stopped in his tracks, and James could hear him taking quick, deep sniffs around the bottom of the stairs, and then with a 'pop' he transformed back.

"What's wrong?"  James whispered frantically.

"I can't smell them out, there are coffee beans everywhere…" oSirius started.

"And there are also Death Eaters everywhere…" a cold voice whispered.

Several candles flickered on magically and James and oSirius saw that they were surrounded by a dozen Death Eaters, all with their wands out, and Voldemort, looming over the rest.  They realised though, that they couldn't be seen due to the invisibility cloak.  Soon they had to scramble from the cloak and defend themselves as the Death Eaters threw curses towards the general direction of where they were.  James hurriedly shot red sparks out the window, but as they were outnumbered, both their wands were soon in the Death Eater's hands.

oSirius brought up his hands in a surrender, "hey, my friends, how goes your costume party?  I'm sorry to inform you that I have forgotten to bring my mask.  Could I kindly borrow one of yours?"

Voldemort chuckled, "you humour me, Black.  Had you followed in your ancestors footsteps, you would have been worthy of one of my masks."

"I think that had he followed his ancestors footsteps," James remarked, "he'd be dead now."

The evil sneer came on Voldemort's face again, "true, but he would have died in service, and that would have been quite an honour," he looked at oSirius rolling his eyes, and continued, "how foolish of you to come tonight, if only you had waited several more days, we could have had a nice discussion before I returned your children…"

"Where are they?"  James asked desperately.

"My servants have gone to retrieve them…" at that moment, four Death Eaters came downstairs, Magnolia in front of all of them with a wand to her head, looking like a frightened little rabbit, "where's the boy?"  He asked dangerously.

One of the Death Eaters were a little braver than the others and stepped forward, "M…My Lord, the… boy, they were sleeping and h…he turned into pillows!"

James and oSirius burst out laughing, James holding onto oSirius' shoulder, oSirius wiping a tear from his eye.  Magnolia was controlling the laughter bubbling inside of her in the face of Voldemort, although there was no need to keep in the laughter as Voldemort's burning red eyes were concentrated on the Death Eater.

"Nonsense!"  Voldemort roared and gestured to Malfoy, who stepped forward and gladly punished such nonsense with a Cruciatus.  Voldemort then rounded on Magnolia, "where's the boy, girl!?"

_'Mags, don't tell him…' _ James thought silently to her, laughter subsided now in the face of seriousness.

Magnolia drew back and there were tears in her eyes, obviously from her attempts not to laugh, and with brilliant acting skills that matched her (other) brother's, she feigned stupidity, "I don't know!  We both went to sleep when we were taken up there, and then your Death Eaters came to get me, and that's all I know!"

Voldemort was about to ask more when another Death Eater rushed in and knelt hurriedly in front of him, "My Lord, we have the others!"

The malicious smile returned to Voldemorts face as he disregarded his questions to Magnolia for the moment and turned to James and oSirius, "well, my friends, the rest of your party will soon be present, then the celebrations can begin!"  At their confused looks, and their gasps of surprise when the 'others' were brought in, Voldemort laughed softly to himself, and continued, "when the large number of wizards seemed to appear on my doorstep, my friend…" he indicated a snake sliding in and out of the Death Eater's feet that no-one had noticed there before, "was kind enough to inform me that it tasted no more than five wizards present.  The illusion was quite impressive, the work of the muggleborn?"  Voldemort walked over to Lily, tied and gagged, and brushed a cold finger along her cheek, "obviously, we outnumbered you five to one, and what a catch it was!  The werewolf comes along for the ride!"  He stopped in front of oRemus, who glared back at the red eyes.  He then went along and stopped in front of the remaining, "and who is this?  You bring other people into danger?"  He turned around and asked Remus and oHarry, "now who might the two of you be?"

The Death Eaters holding oHarry and Remus undid their gags.  oHarry gasped for air as soon as the gag was undone, and Remus looked at Voldemort, "I'm sorry, did you want something?"  He asked in his usual politeness, although it was obvious he was being sarcastic.

Voldemort hissed (not in Parseltongue!), "I asked, who are you?"

"Oh, I thought we met before and you asked me how I am.  Well, looks like memory hasn't been serving you well, Snake Man," Remus replied.  oSirius sniggered a little at that, and James had a look of pure glee on his face.

Voldemort was not impressed; on the other hand, he was positively outraged, "Lucius!  Torture the girl!"

Malfoy stepped forward, wand raised for the honour of torturing for his master, and everyone realised they were going to torture Magnolia for an answer, so Remus hurriedly said, "okay okay!  I was just kidding!  Can't a man take a joke?  I thought you of all people had a sense of humour," he was, again, being sarcastic, "I'll tell you who we are.  I am a Professor, Professor Moriarty.  I am qualified to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.  This," he indicated oHarry with a flick of his head, "is my son, James, who is also quite experienced in the field.  You see, my friend, James, over there," he pointed to James, "was quite distressed about the disappearance of his children, and I happened to be in his company when he heard the news and decided to join him on his quest to save them…"

"Really?  The name does ring a bell…" Voldemort interrupted Remus' time-stalling, "perhaps we have met before.  Either way, being an old acquaintance does not guarantee your own safety," he turned to everyone else in the room, "what guarantees safety is accurate information…"

"Okay, I confess!  It was I who smashed McGonagall's cat ornament in first year!"  oSirius suddenly bellowed.

Several Death Eaters had to control their laughter at the outburst, Lily, oRemus, and Remus rolled their eyes, oHarry smiled at Magnolia, who rolled her eyes too, and James laughingly smacked oSirius' head.

"Seriously!" He said.

Voldemort just watched the by-play, and walked over to Magnolia, a pale hand reaching into his robes.  To everyone's surprise, Voldemort pulled out a muggle handgun and pointed it at Magnolia's head.

"What are you doing with that muggle contraption!?"  James couldn't help exclaiming, a look of fear in his eyes.

With a menacing laugh, Voldemort elaborated, "without my magical powers, I must use other means to kill, and this contraption is one of the simplest results to overcome my inability to cast magic.  Now that we all know what it is I have in my hand, and what I can do to the girl, I believe even you lot can be serious and answer some questions I have…"

"What do you want to know?"  James asked, although he knew quite well what the Dark Lord wanted.

"No doubt you have deduced my intentions; I wish to know of any information about the Parselmouth…"

"In case you didn't notice," oSirius interrupted, "we didn't get to do much investigating."

Voldemort turned his blood red eyes on oSirius, hand tightening on the gun, "if the girl had not escaped, you would not have come and maybe you would have had more information for me."

James looked at the gun in Voldemort's hands and Magnolia's scared face, "we had asked around, and an old couple said they saw a young man speaking to the snakes…"

"Really?  Describe this young man…"

~*~  

_Earlier on…_

Sirius had watched the place where James and oSirius had been, and on impulse, he transformed and slipped away unnoticed.  He sniffed his way to the back of the home, careful to stay out of sight of the Death Eaters, and peeked into one of the windows.  He saw a group of Death Eaters surrounding James and oSirius.  His fur stood on end as he tensed, then he made his way quickly back to the front to tell everyone else that James and oSirius were in trouble, only to find the team out the front outnumbered and captured as well.

He was in a panic now; they were easily outnumbered, what can one man/dog do?  He was a Marauder, and lots of different ideas were popping into his head, but he disregarded them as new ideas came.  He trudged back to the window, and saw the Death Eaters surrounding James, oSirius, Remus, oRemus, Lily, and oHarry.  The latter four were bound and gagged, and Magnolia was at the front with Voldemort.  Sirius noted that Harry was not there, and his heart skipped a beat.  Maybe Harry was already dead?

With a sense of dread he tried to ignore, Sirius made it to the back door.  There were two Death Eaters on guard, and Sirius crept up to them in his dog form, camouflaged in the darkness, and transformed.  In their surprise, both Death Eaters were stunned.  Taking their wands, Sirius reached out and pulled open the back door, glad that they didn't creak.  He transformed into a dog again and made his way towards the familiar smell of his friends.  With his senses alert, he froze when he saw a small cat in front of him.

~*~

Harry made it to the bottom of the steps, and was about to pounce on the next Death Eater he saw and steal his wand when a dozen or so Death Eaters started prowling the living room; if he was in human form he doubted he would have seen the Death Eaters blended into the darkness.  They all had their wands out and were muttering smells, and Harry's enhanced sense of smell was overcome by that of coffee.  Harry, hiding himself under a small table in the corner of the room, was momentarily confused, but then realisation dawned on him; he had seen something on TV about coffee beans used to override a dog's sense of smell so that it couldn't sniff out drugs and other such things, and no doubt that's what the Death Eaters had in mind.  Harry knew that Sirius must have been coming for him, and no sooner did he think that when he heard some voices, and then Voldemort's whisper:

"And there are also Death Eaters everywhere…"

There was a moment of chaos when magic was thrown everywhere, however, soon James and oSirius' wands were in the Death Eater's hands.

Harry watched the scene unfold before him; Magnolia was brought in, then Lily, Remus, oRemus, and oHarry.  He saw that Sirius was not with them, there was a spark of hope.  He heard two thumps from far away, and deducing that it must've been Sirius, he slipped out of the room and made his way towards the sound.

As he had deduced, Sirius came prowling in, and Harry quickly transformed into human form.

"Sirius, it's me!"  Harry whispered frantically.

Sirius made a motion with his head, and the two of them quickly slipped into an empty room and closed the door.  Sirius transformed and cast a silencing charm on the room.  He gave Harry a quick hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay!"  Sirius ruffled his hair, and held Harry at arms length, "and you can even transform!  That's wonderful!  That is gonna be really helpful, we need to get everyone out of there…"

"Well, I'm not too sure a domestic cat is going to be of help to everyone else…"  Harry said uncertainly.

"Don't you know what you are?  You've got two tails!  You're no ordinary cat!"  Sirius exclaimed.

"Well?"  Harry asked impatiently, eager to know what was so special about his form.

"I don't know much about your form either, but you're magical for sure.  I think you're a demon cat, and if I remember right, you can transform into a bigger cat.  And, I think you can fly," Sirius said quickly.

"Big cat?  Fly?  Really?"  Harry asked skeptically.

"Transform into your form, and then think about transforming into a big cat, quick!"  Sirius urged.

Harry did as he was told, first transforming to his cat form, and then thinking about a larger form, and no sooner did he do that then he felt himself grow bigger.  He saw Sirius hop back a little, and conjure a large mirror.  Harry gasped, or what could be a gasp in cat sense, as he saw the larger version of himself in the mirror; he looked somewhat like how he'd imagine a saber-toothed-tiger to look, with two long fangs, the large eyes, the finely muscled body… he wondered if what Sirius said about flying was true, and no sooner did he think that and he found his paws several inches off the ground.

He quickly transformed back to his human form, and looked at Sirius with wide eyes.

"That was cool!"  He gasped.

Sirius grinned, "of course it was, I knew you'd be something different.  Anyway, we don't have much time to ponder on your form, we have people to save."

"There were about fifty Death Eaters altogether I think, and Voldemort no doubt thinks that I've escaped and am looking for help.  He'll either want to move, or get answers as soon as possible," Harry said.

"Probably the latter, it'll take too long to move everyone away, because he has apparition wards around this place.  Also, if he thinks you have escaped, you are without a wand.  It's still everyone's bed-time, and there aren't any wizards in this area, so he probably estimated it'll take up to two or three hours for you to gather help.  I've got an idea though," Sirius said and dug in his robes and pulled out one of the Death Eater's wands, "I can perform a charm on every Death Eater in that room so that they are not capable of normal speech, therefore they wouldn't be able to say the incantations for a spell.  They wouldn't be able to feel the spell on them, and once that's done, they wouldn't have anything to use against us.  While I'm doing that, you can probably sneak up to Voldemort himself and take him hostage.  Sound simple enough?"

Harry thought for a moment, "well, that would quite surprise them, and it might just work."

So the two of them opened the door, transformed, and made their way towards the Death Eaters.  Once they were there, Sirius transformed back into human form and whispered the incantations that would make the Death Eater's speech become babble, keeping in the darkness.  Harry made his way around the room, determined to transform while he was behind Voldemort, and as Voldemort was at the centre of the room, he had quite a bit of sneaking to do.  

"…Really?  Describe this young man…"  Harry heard Voldemort say.  At that moment, Harry saw a snake slithering towards Voldemort, hissing to him, _"Master… there are others here, they are doing something to your servants…"_

_"What?"  _Voldemort hissed back, and Harry noticed that James was going on about 'red eyes' and 'wobbling on his feet' as he made weird hand gestures, and no-one else realised that Voldemort  had hissed that single word to the snake.

_"There is a human to your right, pointing his stick at your servants…"_

_"Strike him…"_ Voldemort replied, and turned to another snake in the corner, _"you too"._

Harry was too far across the room to make it to the snakes in time, and Sirius didn't realise what was happening.  Harry was about ten metres away from Voldemort, would the snakes stopped if Harry made it to Voldemort in time and threatened the snakes' master?  While these thoughts flashed through Harry's mind, the snakes had advanced on Sirius and was a mere two metres away before Harry decided that he had only one thing to do.

He quickly transformed and pointed his wand at the snake closer to Sirius.

"Stupefy!"  He yelled.

The snake stopped momentarily, seeming to quiver.  Sirius looked around and saw what was wrong.  As the Death Eaters in the vicinity all started to point their wands at him, Sirius reached into his robes, pulled out something, and threw it at Death Eaters on the far side of the room.

Harry quickly summoned the hand-gun from Voldemort's hand, and saw from the corner of his eye Sirius throwing the spare wand in the general direction of the other Marauders.  Harry saw now what Sirius had thrown; he had obviously raided Harry's prank collection from the Weasley twins and had thrown 'Blind Bombs' at the Death Eaters that had not been charmed yet.  The blind Death Eaters were a mess; they waved their arms about them, yelling that they couldn't see, and ran into each other.  Harry sniggered at the result.

The Death Eaters around Harry realised that they could not perform spells, and that no-one around them could take the charm off for them, so instead they advanced on the gathered Marauders and Harry for a physical attack.  Sirius, in the midst of his dodging, conjured a wall that separated Harry, Magnoila, Voldemort, and the blind Death Eaters from the speechless Death Eaters and the Marauders.

James quickly conjured a shield.  Harry caught the summoned gun and made a run for Voldemort and Magnolia.  Death Eater #1 standing by Voldemort's side seemed to begin to regain his sight and saw Harry running towards them, he pointed his wand at Harry and uttered a nasty curse.  Harry's quick reflexes saved him as he dodged to the side and shot back a stunner.  Death Eater #2, also standing near Voldemort, decided it was best to get the other Death Eaters, who were trying to attack James' shield, to have normal speech again, and shot a reversal spell at them, breaking through the wall Sirius had conjured.  One of the Death Eater's who were charmed regained his normal speaking, and began to do the reversal spell on the others.  Several of them decided to make their way towards Harry and Voldemort.

James saw that they would be outnumbered; he was the only one with a wand, and Sirius, who also had a wand, was still busily dodging the angry snakes that weren't affected by spells.  So he handed the wand to oSirius, and oSirius looked at James and understood what James was about to do when the shield would no longer hold.

Harry quickly dodged another spell by Death Eater #2, and had to be a little quicker on his feet as Death Eater #3 also regained his sight.  Harry conjured a make-shift shield as he advanced on Voldemort.  All this time, Voldemort had been watching Sirius dodging the snakes in amusement, hissing encouragement at them, and barely took notice of Harry, who he had been sure would have been taken down by his Death Eaters by now.  He was therefore quite surprised as he saw Harry dodging the spells of Death Eaters #2 and #3 and pretty soon Harry was working his hardest to avoid hexes from Death Eaters #4, and soon up to #10 as everyone regained their sight.  The Death Eaters were hit yet again by a Blind Bomb, and a 'Caging Cluster' was thrown at the Death Eaters who were chasing Harry, effectively caging them up in separate cages.  Another of the clusters were thrown at the snakes and the Death Eaters surrounding the other Marauders.  Harry aimed his wand at Magnolia and summoned her to him.  She was soon by his side and he was facing Voldemort, who actually looked afraid of him.

"Death Eaters, stop, or I will kill your master!"  Harry yelled in a clear, strong voice.  It was just as well because at that moment James' shield had gone down and James was about to transform into a stag and charge them as the cages were quickly disappearing and the blind Death Eaters were regaining their sight.

As the Death Eaters began to protest, Voldemort bellowed, "stop!"

Harry took a quick look behind his shoulder and saw Sirius still dodging the two large snakes, apparently the cages didn't last very long at all.

"Tell your snakes to stop attacking him!"  Harry commanded Voldemort.

Voldemort looked at him with narrowed eyes, and then turned towards his snakes.

_"Stop for now.  Once Nagini _(sorry, not creative enough to make up another name!)_ reaches this boy, you can strike that man again…"_

Harry jumped a little in shock, and looked around for Voldemort's large snake; which was a mistake as Voldemort had his eyes on Harry and looked contemplating.

"You have me at your mercy now, you can save your family and go home peacefully," Voldemort said softly, eyes not leaving Harry's as he seemed to be reading Harry's mind.  Harry gulped at that thought.

"Give my family back their wands," Harry said.

Voldemort glared daggers at him, and gestured for his followers to comply.  They did so very reluctantly.  Harry felt rather than saw the presence approaching him from his side, and knew that it was Nagini, Voldemort's large snake.  Nagini hissed, _"Master, I shall strike his hand so that he can not hurt you with the thing he is holding."_  Voldemort nodded slightly, and Harry knew that if he reacted to Nagini he'd reveal he understood Parselmouth, but if he didn't do anything, he'd be dead, and so would his family.  As the dark snake was camouflaged, Harry doubted he would have known what was coming had he not understood the snake language, and quickly pointed his wand in the snakes' general direction and fired a stunner.  With speed Harry didn't know an old and powerless man like Voldemort could possess, Voldemort had knocked the gun out of Harry's hand.  As one of his Death Eaters reached for it, Sirius skillfully transformed it into a teddy bear.  The two snakes attacked Sirius from either side, but James had seen them and shot them both out of the air with a quick succession of spells.  Everyone had  their wands back now, and they began to hex and stun Death Eaters all around them.  James was pleased to note that even only just finishing fourth year, oHarry did admirably.  

Harry pointed his wand at Voldemort, but had to move as the snake jumped at him again, and Voldemort took this chance and lunged at him, pale hands reaching for his neck.  Death Eater #2 was about to shoot something at Magnolia when the whole bunch of them was hit with a combination of a smoke bomb and various hexes from the general direction of the Marauders.  Harry was pleased to make a quick note that Death Eater #2 was in fact Lucius Malfoy, and it was a moment that Harry would remember to cherish everytime he saw Malfoy at school.  He didn't have much time to ponder as Voldemort, still on his course for Harry's neck, found his target and the two of them fell onto the ground.  Voldemort's fingers tightening around Harry's neck.

~*~

James saw that although they were outnumbered, most of the Death Eaters still weren't capable of uttering normal speech, and would have laughed had the Death Eaters not tried to physically attack them.  Everyone had their wands back now, and they were faring pretty well.  He saw that Voldemort was lunging for Harry and was about to curse him when he saw a Death Eater about to curse Magnolia and turned his wand in that direction instead.  As he uttered a hex, he saw something hit the Death Eaters and saw it was a smoke bomb, a very dense smoke bomb.  The whole room was filled with smoke.

"Cat run, everyone!  Ants!"  James yelled, and ran in the general direction of the door, spelling bodies out of the way and making a little spark as he reached it.  He heard "bears" from Magnolia, and "cats" from Lily.  Soon, James, Magnolia, Lily, oHarry, oSirius, Remus, and Sirius were at the door, where the smoke was considerably less dense.

"Oh no, Harry doesn't know the code!"  James said.

~*~

_"Nagini, this one's for you…"_  Voldemort hissed, outraged that he had been held at gun-point by the boy, outraged at his own unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information about the Parselmouth and the Marauders outdoing him.

"Potter, now I finish what I set out to do fourteen years ago…" Voldemort said through clenched teeth.

Harry tried to struggle, but Voldemort was bigger than him, and Harry felt it was hard to breathe.  With no wand, no gun, and no strength, Harry could not transform while out of breath and quickly hissed, _"no!"_

Voldemort loosened his grip slightly, and hissed at his snake to stop it's advanced, "what did you say?"

Harry coughed and took great gasps of breath, "I… did I say something?"  Harry feigned confusion.  Voldemort didn't buy it though, and released his hold on Harry's neck.  He took a knife from his robes and pointed it at Harry.

"I knew there was something suspicious about you," he hissed, looking at Harry with wonder, "I knew there was something… Slytherin-like… about you, and I was right, you must be related to Slytherin himself to have acquired such a skill.  But I wondered, how could you be a Potter and be a Parselmouth?  And you seemed to want to protect the girl…"

Harry knew that he couldn't let Voldemort think he was Harry Potter, as oHarry would be in quite a bit of danger if Voldemort thought oHarry was a danger to him, and Harry had been doing some lying in Voldemort's presence lately, so this lie came a little easier, "you are correct," Harry said in a low voice, "I am not Harry Potter, I am Salazars invention, so naturally I can speak the snake language."

Voldemort twirled the knife in his hand like he would a wand, "if you are an invention of Salazar's, who died thousands of years ago, why are you in this time, why do you protect the girl?  In fact, why do you protect any of my enemies?  And why do you take the form of Harry Potter?"  Voldemort looked at Harry with calculating eyes.  Harry knew that Voldemort was inclined to believe that Harry was not really Harry, as there was no way a Potter could speak Parselmouth.  Knowing this, Harry felt more confident and his lies, therefore, came more easily.

"Master died a long long time ago, but he had wanted me to take refuge in a home where I could attack the light side from the inside when the time came.  I protected the family as it was my duty to act the son.  Now, however, I feel that I must find another refuge and return their son to them, so as to not direct suspicion at myself.  Until you have your powers back, I will not risk my position…"  Harry knew it was an outrageous lie, but did it matter, as long as Voldemort didn't think that the _real Harry Potter could speak Parseltongue?_

It was only then that Harry realised the smoke had dissipated greatly and that he had a slightly cloudy view of the whole room.  Everyone gathered had their eyes on Voldemort and Harry, and Harry wondered if they had heard the whole conversation.  Harry quickly transformed into the small cat and dashed towards the doorway, past everyone's feet.  As he was out of the door, Sirius reached into his robes and threw some more Blind Bombs and dung bombs, then the Marauders quickly conjured a wall and a shield.  Harry turned to the Marauders, became a large cat, and made a gesture with his head, looking pointedly at Magnolia, she seemed to understand what he meant, and hopped onto his back.  He felt he could carry another weight and gestured to Lily, who also hopped on.  Sirius, oSirius, and James transformed and galloped away, Remus and oRemus, with superhuman speed, sped after them, oHarry turned to Harry and grinned, transforming, and speeding after them.  Harry bounded towards the door, and when he reached the outside, he bounded into the air.

~*~

Everyone was lazing around the living room; Lily had gone to make some tea and coffee in the kitchen, while the Marauders fell over each other on the couch.  Harry, oHarry, and Magnolia shared the other couch.  They all sat in silence, Magnolia's head lolling a little as she fell asleep, oHarry yawning and just relaxing back, Harry feeling a little worried about what had transpired and wondering if Voldemort believed him.  James had his arm over Sirius' shoulder and a leg over oSirius' lap, as Remus was sitting on the soft carpet with his head on oRemus' stomach.

James had notified the Ministry of the where-abouts of Voldemort's gang, and Aurors had been sent out to search the place.  Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.  The place was thoroughly searched, and the only thing that suggested that Voldemort was ever there was some snake skin in the corner of a room.

Lily came back with the food and drink, but no-one seemed to have the energy to reach for it.  Harry wasn't surprised; everyone had to run a block before they were out of the apparition wards, and some of them had to apparate another person out as Harry, oHarry, and Magnolia couldn't apparate yet.  Once they came home, they all fell into the positions they were still in now.  Lily occupied a single sofa and sighed.

"You all did very well tonight, I am proud," she looked at everyone.

James got up from his awkward position and dragged his legs over to her and sat by her side.

"Your charm was just as smashing," he sighed into her hair.

She giggled, "it was so good, only the snakes caught onto the act!  But I must admit Sirius' snake dance was quite amusing."

Sirius scowled, "hey, they were fierce things!  I think Voldemort must've had them drink lots of potions or something, not many spells worked on them!"

"Of course he did, but in the end, Prongsies blasts were too much for them," oRemus said.

"Hey Snitch," oSirius looked at Harry, "how did you turn into a bunch of pillows?  I thought we taught you better than that!"

Harry blushed a little, "I actually picked the lock and was on my way down to find a wand."

"Picked a lock!?  That's my boy, a true Marauder!"  James cried.

"The Weasley twins taught me how to do it," Harry remarked, and definitely didn't intend to tell them why they taught him how to do it.

"Speaking of Marauders, could you please tell me why my sons can miraculously turn from having two feet, to four feet!?"  Lily turned to James, a glare in her eyes, obviously dulled by the fact that she knew their transformations might have saved them that night.

"Two feet bad, four feet good!"  Remus couldn't help chirping.

Sirius looked at him confused, and Remus shrugged, "I can't help it if I'm more literate than some of you!"  oHarry sniggered, having read 'Animal Farm' at Muggle school and knowing exactly where Remus got that statement from.

James looked at her adoringly, "I don't know why you ask when you already know the answer!"

"I'd still like to hear it, so that I can snap back at you!"  Lily said.

"Don't bother with the snapping, mum," oHarry said, grinning, "both Snitch and I knew that we'd need the skills one day, you can't deny us an edge in a dangerous situation."

Lily sighed, "still, it was dangerous."

"No more dangerous than being captured by Death Eaters with no way to escape," oSirius said.

"Speaking of which," Remus said, "I thought you were at home all day, how did you manage to get captured by Death Eaters?"  He looked at Harry, and Harry had the impression that Remus refrained himself from saying 'again' at the end of his question.

Harry shrugged, "Mags and I went for a jog, and we just happened to run into a whole party of them."

"Oh," Remus said, although he knew there was more to it.

"Now, how did you two manage to get surrounded by the Death Eaters?  I thought our local Lassie would have sniffed them out before approaching the building?"  oRemus looked to oSirius and James.  Sirius looked confused again, and Harry couldn't help letting loose a slight snigger.

"Are you calling me a girl!?"  oSirius' pitch rose.

Harry, oHarry, and Lily laughed out loud, while Remus tried to hide a smile behind his hand.

"You really need to watch more Muggle television.  Lassie is a famous smart dog," oRemus stated matter-of-factly.  oSirius and Sirius still looked confused, but oRemus just shrugged, "you still haven't answered my question."

"Oh, yeah, Paddy here said the place was filled with coffee beans, obviously to confuse his sharp sense of smell," James answered, patting oSirius on the head, who pretended to enjoy the attention and smiled in a very dog-like manner.

"Anyway, my pet dogs and myself would like to say that we are proud to see our sons have successfully mastered the Animagi transformation, even quicker than we did!"  James looked at Harry and oHarry proudly.  oHarry stuck his nose up in the air, while Harry blushed.

"Of course we did, we are just much more talented, much smarter…" oHarry began while oSirius threw a pillow at him.

"Don't even start!"  oSirius warned, as oHarry shrugged, tossing the pillow back at him.

oHarry turned to Harry, "anyway, what was that thing you became?  It was pretty cool!"

"I'm not too sure, but Sirius tells me I'm a demon cat," Harry looked to Sirius, who looked to Remus.

"Well Professor, what do you say about Harry's form?"

"I'd say he's a demon cat, not much research has been done on them as they are quite rare, and only some characteristics of them are known.  They are known to be very loyal, and fierce when the need arises.  They have the ability to change from a small form to the larger form, which can also fly.  They are quite strong as well, and their sight is probably as sharp as a hunting birds'."

Everyone just sat there, slightly shocked at what Harry had become.  Harry was slightly embarrassed that he could become something so amazing, then he turned to oHarry, "and when did _you_ first transform?" he asked.

"While everyone was out looking for you, I just did it, simple," oHarry shrugged and grinned and his godfather.

oSirius grinned back, "I am pleased to see that you have followed in my footsteps, you are the most beautiful husky I have ever seen!  Way better than some cat…"

"Don't let McGonagall hear you say that!"  James warned, and everyone laughed.  

"Speaking of cat, what were you shouting out animals for?"  Harry turned to James.

At Harry's perplexed look, James chuckled, "just this code we made up a long time ago.  When us Marauders thought a professor was around, usually Professor McGonnagal (I swear, I can never spell her name!!!) we'd make respective animal sounds to let each other know we're on our way to the nearest exit.  If we hear the animal and no-one comes, we know they're in danger.  If we don't hear the animal, we'd know that they were either not in hearing range or were in danger.  Either way, it lets us know who needs help.  In a situation like tonight, we know that simple animal sounds couldn't be heard, so we each shout out our assigned animals and make it towards my spark.  We need to assign you something, in case you get in danger though…"

Harry just smiled sadly, "I don't think there'll be anymore adventures for me while I'm here."

"Harry, there's always an adventure when you're with the Marauders!"  oSirius commented.

"Otherwise, people would think we've gone nutters!  Marauders that don't maraud, honestly!"  Sirius added.

Everyone laughed, agreeing that adventureless Marauders would be more than slightly unnatural.  The laughter subsided, and Harry felt that it was time he confessed his abilities.

"I, uh, I have something I have to admit to you all…" Harry began.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're Voldemort in disguise!" oSirius joked, while James smacked him on the head.

"Well, no, but close enough," oSirius stopped fussing, and everyone could see that Harry was dead serious, "I was the one who spoke to snakes the other day, I'm a Parselmouth."

There, he had said it, and he expected James to jump and furiously and verbally attack him for being a Parselmouth, he expected oSirius to pull out his wand and hex him, he expected Lily to look at Harry with pure shock and loathing, and oRemus to take a bite out of him (even though he truly knew that oRemus would do no such thing, even to his worst enemy), and he expected oHarry to throw a punch at him, but none of those things happened in the seconds that passed.

"Well?  Aren't you going to do something to me?"  Harry asked impatiently.

James just frowned, "why do you think we'd do something to you?  Why didn't you tell us in the first place?"  He sounded a little disappointed, and Harry couldn't stand the disappointment in his voice.

"I saw how you reacted when Patil said there was a Parselmouth lurking about, it was quite a negative reaction," Harry said quietly.

"Well, of course it was," oSirius began, "but we even came to accept Moony for the fierce," James smacked him on the head again, "we came to accept Moony for the werewolf he is, sure, we're a little wary of those who mix themselves with anything related to the Dark Arts, but we know that being Dark doesn't necessarily mean you're evil…"

"And because we know what sort of person you are, Harry, we'll know that just because you can speak to snakes doesn't make you evil," James finished.  Harry somehow felt a little teary eyed, and Sirius walked up to him and put an arm around his shoulder.

"See, we told you they wouldn't mind that you're a Parselmouth," Sirius grinned.  Harry couldn't help but hug Sirius, while Sirius hugged him back.

"Harry dear, you are such a kind and wonderful person that speaking to snakes wouldn't make us think any less of you," Lily said and also put an arm around Harry, who felt tears slide down his face.  He quickly wiped them off with the back of his hand, while Lily stepped back.

"Yeah, and my abilities did sort of help me escape tonight," Harry went on and told them about what he told Voldemort.

"At least that man was so unwilling to believe that a Potter could speak Parseltongue," James said.

"And this way he's not aware that another dimension exists," Sirius added.  Everyone just nodded in agreement.

 "I think it's been a tiring night for everyone, bed!"  Lily said loudly into the silence, stretching.  James walked over to Harry and gave him a quick hug, "I'm proud of you," he said softly into Harry's ear, then picked up the sleeping Magnolia in his arms and looked down at her sleeping face, "I think I owe you an apology, Doll," he whispered, and took her to her room.

Remus and oRemus took some guest rooms for the night, and Sirius made his way to his room.  To Harry's surprise, oSirius just transformed on the spot and settled in on the couch.

"Dog's are comfortable sleeping anywhere," Sirius explained.  But he still went to his room to sleep.  oHarry looked at Harry and, grinning, also transformed and settled onto one of the comfortable couches.

Harry shrugged, and transformed into the small cat and settled on the couch beside Harry.

~*~

AN (which I should change to AB for 'Author's Babble', anyway…): Well, finally finished the ruddy chapter!  I have to shamefully admit, I had the first half of it finished AGES ago, it was just Harry's escape that took a long time due to my, uh, lack of planning.  You can see why I don't write action a lot, it's difficult to keep track of all the characters, especially when you're like me and don't plan stuff.  I also have to admit, I am not very pleased with the way their escape turned out, but right now I couldn't really care less as I know you want my chapter and I know I want to get the chapter out of the way so that I can go and try to get my head around relativity.  I know Harry's lie was just a lame way of getting himself out of the situation, so if I ever come up with a more brilliant escape or someone suggests something, I'll re-do it, but I wouldn't count on it.

  As for the ending of the chapter, that took me about twenty minutes to do, I know I didn't put as much thought in the conversation and their reactions, I just didn't know how else to bring the chapter to an end.

  A note on Harry's form:  I knew it had to be something different, because it's just Harry Potter.  Anyway, I had wanted to make Harry something that could fly because of his love for flying, then someone said that I should make him a cat and gave very good reasons too.  So I wanted him to be a cat, and I wanted him to fly, so apart from a Griffin (which I really didn't want to do) Kirara from Inuyasha (by Rumuko Takahashi, should check out her manga, great stuff!) was the only thing that came to my mind.  I haven't read 'Fantastic Beasts…' yet, so there may have been something in there I could have used.  Anyway, Kirara seemed perfect to me; she's (I'm quite sure Kirara's a she) a cat that has the ability to fly, she's very loyal to Sango (her, well, master, or friend), and the thought that she can change from a small form to a large form suits Harry's character I think, because Harry is so small compared to his classmates and if he wasn't Harry Potter then I think everyone won't really notice him because of his size, and no-one would suspect he's a strong person because he's so quiet.  But Harry can also be fierce, and we know he is strong, and I think this is signified by the larger form of Kirara.  If you don't know who Kirara is, just do a search on a Japanese manga called 'Inuyasha' and you should find that Kirara is Sango's pet (Sango is one of the main characters, a demon hunter in a sense).

  As for oHarry's form, I knew that he had to be a dog.  Dogs are just so loyal, playful, and are a man's best friend.  And they are just so cute!!!  I had some trouble choosing what sort of dog, I mean, I didn't want to make him a chihuahua (can't spell it!) or a bulldog or anything like that.  I wanted something that was, no offence to chihuahua-lovers, a little smarter than that.  I had labrador, German shepard (can't spell that either) or even blue heeler in mind.  But then my sister suggested a husky, because she said that it would be influenced by both Sirius and Remus who are influencial people in oHarry's life apart from his family, and they are such beautiful things that I had to make oHarry one of them.  Not to mention it snows where he lives, so a husky would do nicely.  I had actually wanted him to be something a little more special as well, otherwise he'd be jealous of Harry, and also because there had to be something special about oHarry, being in the prophecy and all, but I figured that for my characterisation of oHarry, he's just not the type to get jealous.  As for the prophecy, you never know, maybe he's a magical husky ^_^.

  I thought I should mention that oSnape was not among the Death Eaters, after Voldemort lost his powers, he no longer risked having anyone who's loyalty was questionable around him, so oSnape is no longer parading around as a Death Eater ^_^.

  In the next chapter, I'll be acting on one of the reviews left for me (by Lily, thanks Lily!), and it won't really be part of the story as a whole so it'll only go for a chapter, two at most.  It's going to be as wacky as I can make it (so it'll be full of silly stuff), but hopefully believable (if any fanfic is), and if anyone has suggestions for what a different world could be like, leave it in a review or send me an email at tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au.  I'm not going to make any promises on updates due to my very hectic schedule, but I promise I'll _try not to take longer than 2 months.  Until then, adios!_

~ultrasoul

oh, for those of you reading Ask Snape, the next chapter should be up next week!


	12. chapter 12

AN: You'd probably prefer a chapter to a list of reasons why this took so long.  Let's just say, exams, exams, exams, and lack of computer/internet access.  This chapter is not really a continuation of my actual story, it's a side chapter.  It's about yet _another_ world, and incorporates some of the ideas suggested by reviewers and some of my own.  I have done this chapter because: it's an idea that's been flying around my head, and it's been so long since I've worked on this story that I need it to rebuild the momentum of my writing, if you get what I mean.  So if you're not interested in what may have been in yet another world, then you don't need to read this, as it won't affect the actual story.

Thanks to reviewers for their kind input.  To those of you who said there were some parts that should be changed, I agree with you, but as I don't have original copies with me (don't know what I've done with them) I won't be making any changes to previous chapters.  In fact, I don't think I'll change anything in previous chapters, for now, as it'll be a little time consuming.  Oh, and I don't have OoTP at the moment, so I'm not sure if I spelt Regalus' name right or not…

Thanks to all reviewers:

**Tonks5-** sorry for the wait, hope it was worth it!

**Kukil-** I'll try to keep writing, but if next year will be more hectic than this year, I dunno… I'll do my best!

**Emma Ackroyd-** sorry, a little hard to hurry up with the chapters, but I'll try.

**HarryGryffingirl-** thanks!

**Sarcastic spastic-** hehe, like the name.  Thanks for your review.  Uh, didn't use your idea, although I love food too ^_^ and I so envy people who love food but stay skinny!  Well, my sister reads more than me so I do take her ideas into consideration.  Yeah, I know Harry wouldn't have thought of a story like that so easily, but oh well, let's just say it's a stroke of luck that the story walked into his mind at the right moment. ^_^

**Crystaldreams611-** I'm glad you liked it.  The up to chapter 11 was the actual idea I've had since the beginning of the year, so I hope whatever I make up later on you'll like as well.  I don't read that many L/J fics, but I think I read one called 'Royal Mixup' or something like that, and I enjoyed it.

**Goddess of darkness3-** here's the chapter, sorry it's late!  Hope you like it!

**Potter-Freak123-** I'm sure no-one else has used cat demon before, and I thought it'd suit him.  Yes, Magnolia changes, kinda like how when you go through hard times with someone, your attitude towards them just changes, that's the way I think it happens anyway.  ^_^ thanks for the review!

**Z1x2c3v4- **good point!  Well, as I do not have the means to change that right now, let's just say it was a smart assumption; there was no animal in there before, and as oHarry can change, and Sirius and Magnolia seemed to recognise it, he assumes that it's Harry!  ^_^

**Authoress-** Ooh, long review!  I'm glad you liked the chapter, and that you knew Inuyasha!  Weird ending?  I didn't think so, but if you think so… ^_^ and as an inexperienced writer, I'm glad I got everyone's reactions right.  Yes, I'll fix Magnolia up, or at least she won't be as spoilt as before.  Voldemort just escaped.  I'll try to write more, I mean, I could just end it here but it'll have a lot of loose ends (like what is oSnape gonna be doing in Harry's world) and if I ended it here, it doesn't really fit my summary, does it?  I had been tempted to leave it, but I know how annoying it is when you're reading a fic and the person stops writing!  It's bad enough when people update slow like me!  But if I ever do discontinue, I'll let everyone know what was going to happen in the story.  Thanks again for your kind review!

**ShortySC22-** thanks for the review.  I haven't read Inuyasha in ages, so I might go to the sight you suggested.  I'm glad you liked the chapter, next one should be a little quicker!

**Sweet A.K-** I think a cat suits Harry, and I'm glad you liked it.  Sorry I took a bit long, but the next one should be quicker.

**KaLeigh1-** thanks for the review!

**Hexe605-** of course someone likes Inuyasha, it's a great manga!  Sorry for the wait, it was unavoidable, and I've outlined my reasons above.  I'll try to make the next chapter sooner!

**Kateri1-** Thanks, I'm glad that you liked the chapter!

**Alynna Lis Eachann-** Well, Inuyasha is a great manga, I'm surprised you didn't know about it sooner! ^_^ and I've been thinking about Snape's reaction to his other self, should be interesting…

**SndReAmer-** thanks for the compliment!  As a first-time fanfic writer (I mean, I've done creative writing at school and stuff, but that's it) your compliment means much to me!  Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you!

**Natalie b.-** glad you liked the chapter, and I hope this one is worth it's wait.  Thanks for the encouragement!

**tR00 kaNgaR00-** Hmm, that's an interesting name, are you in Aus?  So how many different aliases do you have?  I'm glad someone can relate to my sense of humour, hope you enjoy this chapter!

**SiriusAboutMarauders-** Inuyasha is a great manga!  Have you read Ranma as well?  Personally I like Ranma better, but Inuyasha is comparable.  Yeah, I had to do Animal Farm in high school, it was a- different- book, I'd say.  As I've mentioned, I haven't had much chance to use the net, but I'll try to check out your fics when I have time!  Thanks again for the review!

**Greyhound Master-** I'm glad you liked the chapter.  I'm _back on your fav stories list?  So does that mean I got taken off?  ^_^ no surprise there, I mean, I did take long enough to update, didn't I?  Sorry, can't be helped!  Hope you're still reading this, because until my work becomes too much, I __will be continuing this fic!_

**Risi-** thank you for the kind review.  It did take some internal debating over what oHarry would become, I had dog in mind from the start, but they are all so gorgeous I had trouble deciding which type!

**Smile7499-** I've never seen Inuyasha dubbed, do they really use Kilala?  I do intend to make Mags a more likeable character, I simply don't think she could stay spoilt if she's surrounded by all these 'good' people, they must have a good influence on her, and after the scare of being kidnapped she'd be a little more mature.  I do agree that some of my writing doesn't flow well, I have the tendency to write a heap, then go back and add some bits, then delete some bits, then leave bits I have no idea how to change, because I usually don't have the time to work on one whole chapter at a time so I do it over a few days, or even weeks.  And because I don't have my copies, it's a little difficult to change things at the moment, so things will stay the way they are.  Thanks for the critique, I'll try to improve that habit of mine ^_^.  Glad you liked it overall.

**Sailor Sol-** Huskies are just gorgeous aren't they?  If I was more responsible, then I wish I had one, or a German Sherpard.  Can they be goofy?  I can just imagine that!  You've got a spoilt dog, have you?  Well, as long as she's loyal.  Thanks for the review!

Disclaimer: this story is based on characters and situations created by JK Rowling.  I am not making money out of this, so please don't sue.

Chapter 12

It was a week or so after the events at Voldemort's headquarters.  Harry had wanted to stay at the Potter's home and enjoy some form of normal life, but he knew by now that whoever controlled fate would never allow Harry any normalcy.  So it was on that bright and warm night that Harry realised that the fates decided to play with him again…

"Ooo, come on Snitch, your hair would look great short!"  Magnolia cried, as she lunged after Harry with a pair of scissors.

"Mags, I already told you, that even if you cut my hair, it's gonna grow back anyway!"  Harry backed into corner, and Magnolia advanced slowly.  Harry was not sure what brought on this change to the girl.  oHarry had gone out with his muggle friends.  Harry, having nothing else to do, had decided to listen to Magnolia's tales of family adventures.  He had been enjoying them too, even though some of the facts were obviously a little polished.  And then the discussion of family somehow turned to the infamous Potter hair; Magnolia had never seen oHarry or her father with short hair, so Harry was the only option at present, and Magnolia had become quite confident around Harry over the past week.

"If it'll grow back anyway, then what are you afraid of?"  Magnolia smirked, reminding Harry strongly of Malfoy.

"To be honest, Mags, I do not trust you approaching me with that sharp object!"  Harry admitted.  Magnolia huffed and lunged at Harry, the scissors somehow being aimed at his arm rather than his hair, according to Harry's view.  In order to save himself from the dangerous scissor-yielding girl, Harry quickly transformed into the small-cat form and dashed out the door.

"Oh no you don't!"  Magnolia shouted, and ran after him.

The only way Harry could think of to get away from her was to hide himself in a small space.  But Harry still didn't know this house well enough to know what space was suitable for him to hide in _I could just lock myself in a room, but Magnolia probably knows secret ways into it, this is, after all, a wizarding house, belonging to a Marauder.  Or I could just keep running until Magnolia gets tired…_ _oof!_

Magnolia had thrown a cushion at him, and Harry momentarily lost balance, and slipped.  He got up and continued running, to look back and see Magnolia had gained on him a little.  He flew down the stairs (not too sure if Kirara can fly in small form…), through the kitchen, through the hallway, looking ocassionally back to see what else needed to be dodged, through the living room, and stopping abruptly before flying into someone's head.  As luck would have it, Magnolia threw a pillow at him and Harry went flying into that someone's head, and he felt the definite pull of dimension travelling.

~*~

It was James' idea at first; of course it was, oSirius had been too busy teaching oHarry new tricks, and Sirius himself, with so much back in his own world to worry about, would never have thought up an idea as ridiculous as James'.

Before breakfast that morning, James pulled oSirius aside, out of ear-shot of the rest of the family.  oSirius recognised James' expression and listened intently.

"Hey Padfoot, wanna go on an adventure?"

oSirius' eyes brightened at the prospect of another adventure, "sure, when?  Where?"

James grinned, "how about now?  I was thinking of trying to reach other worlds, I am sure there are some worlds out there that are quite interesting that we must explore!"

oSirius thought for a while, a contemplative look on his face, "well, Dumbledore did say we could probably take more than one person at a time.  Reckon Moony and oMoony would wanna come along?"

"oMoony wanted to complete some work for the ministry, so let's ask your counterpart and Moony."

Five minutes after breakfast Sirius, oSirius, and Moony were gathered in the living room.

James then walked in, "I just left a note for Lily telling her we'd be gone for a day."

"Do you do that all the time?"  Moony asked with a raised eyebrow.  James shrugged, and oSirius grinned.

"How about Harry?  Let's take him for a ride!"  oSirius said.  Sirius, however, shook his head.

"I think that the kids need a bit of a break from adventure, besides, our Harry needs some normalcy in his life once in a while, he's been deprived of it for too long," oSirius seemed a bit put out that Sirius was so serious, but didn't say anything.

The Marauders stood in a circle, and James and oSirius began to chant the spell.  And the moment before the travelling occurred, something hit oSirius in the back of the head, and was transported with them.

~*~

As soon as the group felt they had arrived, James surveyed their surroundings and cast quick spells to make sure the area stayed clear.  oSirius turned around abruptly, "who threw something at my head!?"  Upon seeing Harry's small cat form, oSirius grinned, "hey, we took three people with us!  Look who got pulled along for the ride!"

"Harry, what are you doing here?"  Sirius walked over to Harry and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking slightly concerned that his godson was pulled into this world.

With a 'pop', Harry stood where the cat had been, "Magnolia threw a pillow at me, and I collided into you," Harry said to oSirius.  "Why are you dimension travelling?" he asked curiously.  One hand rubbed his back lightly, where Magnolia had ditched the pillow at him, while the other rubbed the side of his head, where it had collided with the back of oSirius' head.  

James clapped a hand on Harry's other shoulder, "just a little adventure.  Don't you want to satisfy your curiosity?"  James asked with a jovial grin.

"Uh, what curiosity?"  Harry looked at James strangely.

"We just wanted to see what other worlds are like," Remus answered, giving the other Marauders a look that said he didn't agree with what they were doing, but didn't want to miss out on learning anything new.  Harry smiled inwardly at that look, it reminded him of Hermione in a way.

"Looks like we landed in some forest clearing, good thing no-one is around though," James said after casting some spells to make sure there was no-one in the vicinity.

"Let's disguise ourselves and do some exploring!"  oSirius exclaimed.

After ten minutes of the Marauders transfiguring each others faces and Harry's, having a lot of fun doing so, the group stood there, looking nothing like their usual selves.  They also gave each other names as well; James was Jupiter (from previously), Harry was Larry (oSirius had also suggested Barry, Darry, and Garry, but Larry had been the first suggestion), Remus was Jonathan (his middle name, I think), oSirius was Rex, and Sirius was Buster ("come on, ya gotta have doggie names!" "shut up, Jupiter!").

"You stick with us, okay Harry?"  Sirius said to Harry in a very parental sort of way, Harry nodded, as Sirius placed a cap on Harry's head to cover his forehead in case something happened to reveal his scar.

As it turned out, the forest clearing they had landed in was the forest surrounding Hogsmeade, to their pleasant surprise.

James looked at the place, "it looks exactly like ours!" he exclaimed as Hogsmeade came into view.

"Maybe this world isn't so different from ours," oSirius thought aloud.

"Shh!  Does anyone hear that?"  Remus put up a hand and looked alert.  There were some sounds coming from the right, a little deeper in the forest.  As one, the group moved towards the sound.  The closer they moved to the source, the more they could make out that it was the sound of sniffs; someone was crying.

Through the bushes, they could see a little girl, who could not have been older than five, sitting at the base of a tree, hugging her knees, and sniffling softly into her knees.  If she heard the people approaching, she made no note of it as she continued to cry.

James knelt beside the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder.  She stiffened and looked up at James.  Her eyes had unshed tears, slightly hidden behind a dark fringe.

"Shh, we won't hurt you.  What's wrong?"  James whispered.

Her black eyes quickly surveyed the group standing around her, and somehow she decided to trust them, "I'm LOST!" she wailed.

"Shh, it's okay.  Tell us who your parents are, and we can help you look for them."

"Daddy said I can stay near the shops, and he'd come for me when he finished his job.  But then I saw this cute white rabbit (sound familiar? ^_^) and followed it.  _Sniff_ and when I lost the rabbit, I tried to get back to the shops, but couldn't find them!"

James patted her gently on the back, "who are your parents?"

"I call them mummy and daddy…" she started.  It was obvious that she knew her parents by 'mummy' and 'daddy' rather than their real names.

"Well, what do they look like?  Do they have dark hair like you?  Are they thin?"

"Daddy is tall, and thin, and has dark hair like mine," her sniffs had died down, as she felt more comfortable with adults helping her.

"Okay kid, let's go to Hogsmeade and find your daddy," James said, offering a hand to help her up.  She took it, "I'm sorry we haven't introduced ourselves; I am Jupiter, and these are my friends Larry, Rex, Buster, and Jonathan.  What's your name?"

"I am Sylvia," the girl replied.  (You all thought Alice, didn't you? ^_^)

oSirius smiled, "that is a nice name, Sylvia."  The girl beamed through her tears.

"Trying to hit-on a little girl now, Rex?"  Sirius whispered.

"At least I know how to make one happy," oSirius whispered back.

Harry just watched on in amazement and a pang of envy; this world's James was so gentle with the girl, and not for the first time did Harry wish he had someone like that in his childhood.

~*~

Hogsmeade was reasonably busy; there were witches and wizards everywhere and families enjoying their holidays together.  Owls were fluttering into the village, obviously returning from sending morning mail.  Harry didn't see anyone he knew, but had helped pick out several people with dark hair, who turned out not to be Sylvia's father.  They were on their way in the direction of Honeydukes when Remus spotted a dark haired man walking swiftly away.

Remus Sylvia's shoulder, "hey Sylvia, is that your father?"

All eyes turned to the man, dressed in dark robes with long dark hair tied back, who looked around suspiciously as he made his way towards the corner.  Sirius and oSirius' jaw dropped, and James just stared at their reaction.  Remus' eyes widened as he recognised who it was, and Harry just looked on confusedly.

"That's not daddy," Sylvia said in the silence, shaking her head, and Harry wondered if any of the Marauders heard.

"Regalus!"  Sirius breathed out.

"Who?"  Harry asked, curious who could cause such reactions from the Marauders.

"Our younger brother," oSirius replied, eyes never straying from the dark-robed figure.  Harry was shocked; he had never considered whether or not any of the Marauders had siblings, and Sirius had never told him that he had a younger brother.  oSirius moved forward as Regalus turned the corner, "I want to see what he's up to."

"Me too," Sirius agreed.

"How about we meet at the Three Broomsticks at, say, 10 o'clock tonight?" James suggested, looking at his watch; that would give them a whole day to have a look around.  Both Sirius' nodded and made off after Regalus, waving good-bye to the rest.

Sylvia waved good-bye, and looked up expectantly at James.

"Rex and Buster knew that man, they just wanted to catch up with him," James elaborated, taking her hand and leading her through the village.

~*~

"Larry!  Hey, Larry!  Look at that!"

Harry turned to look at what James was yelling about.  Sylvia had Harry's hand in one hand, and a large sugar quill in the other, sucking on it silently.  They had been walking in and out of shops for the last quarter of an hour, and yet no-one recognised Sylvia, and Sylvia didn't recognise anyone.

Harry's eyes widened as he skimmed the poster:

SUMMER HOLIDAYS QUIDDITCH MATCH

NORTHERN NORWEGIANS VS. EASTSIDE ELVES

BEGINS 12:00 IN HOGSMEADE'S EASTERN CLEARING

"Da… I mean, Jupiter, we have to see this!"  Harry said excitedly.

James nodded in agreement, "Johnny, could you look for Sylvia's parents?  Not that we don't want to help, Sylvia," James patted her on the head and smiled, "but I'm sure that she doesn't need three people to take her around the place, and we just have to see this!"

With a sigh, Remus agreed to keep searching for Sylvia's parents, while James looked at his watch and quickly noted they had ten minutes to make it there.  James and Harry waved good-bye, and quickly left.  Sylvia, her hand now in Remus', while her other hand still occupied the sugar-quill looked up at Remus.

"Come on Sylvia, let's go find your daddy," Remus said with a smile, handing her a lollipop as she only had a small amount of the sugar-quill left.

~*~

Regulas was not happy; he had been stood up by the most annoying peple he had ever met, and those people will get what they deserved.  He walked swiftly towards an abandoned building on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, already a plan of revenge formed in his mind.

It was when he had turned the corner and was at the door when he realised that someone was following him.  He heard some footsteps and whispers, and pretended to be oblivious to it as he entered the building.  Looking through a crack in the shuttered window beside the door, he distinctly make out two men creeping towards the door, and his face broke into an evil smile as he saw who they were.  To his delight, neither of the men lingering outside had their wands out.

Pulling out his own wand, Regalus pointed his wand through a gap in the shutters and conjured ropes to tie the two men.  Smiling with glee, he stepped out, "well well, if it isn't the two men who stood me up?"

~*~

Sirius didn't like the tone of Regalus' voice, and the fact that he was bound did not help matters.  Why was he bound in the first place?

"Hello, how are you?  I think you have the wrong people, I don't even know who you are," oSirius said quickly.

"Oh, I know who you are alright, I'd recognise you even if you were burnt to ashes.  You have something we need, and we won't give up until we get it," Regalus answered, pulling on the ropes that tied the two men.

"I am quite sure you have the wrong people, you see, my name is Buster White, and this is my brother Rex," Sirius replied.

Regalus' smile widened, "then I do have the right people, Mister and Mister White," he led them into the building and towards the back.

_Just great, we transfigure into people they knew, with the same names, great.  Just great._  Sirius thought to himself, and looking at oSirius, he could see that the same thoughts were running through his head.

Upon entering the wooden door to some room at the back, Sirius could see gathered none other than some known Death Eaters; Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle.

"Oh, so it's The Death Eaters Incorporated," oSirius couldn't help blurting out.

Malfoy looked at oSirius confusedly, "what are you talking about, Rex?"

Walking all the way into the room, Sirius frowned, "I thought you are Death Eaters."

"What's a Death Eater?" Regalus asked, sounding slightly interested, "never mind, but it's a good name though, maybe we can call ourselves Death Eaters?" Regalus asked the whole room.

"We'll have to ask the leader first," Malfoy nodded, "sounds good though."

oSirius grinned, "what, so are you guys called the, uh, We Hate Anything Muggle Associationg at the moment?  The WHAMA?"

"Nah Rex, must be the "We Are Going To Dominate All Worlds Association!  The WAGTDAWA!"  Sirius put in.

"Or Evil Wizard Alert?  EWA?" 

"Shut up!"  Regalus shouted, sparks flying out of his wand, "you know very well that we are the Anti-Muggle Society!  Are you mocking us!?"  His face looked amusingly red, and both Sirius' were pleased they could push their brother's buttons.

"AMS?  Well, I guess that's not too bad, I mean, I knew this girl who had started this thing called SPEW…" Sirius started, but stopped when Regalus' wand was pointed at his face.

"You were not called to mock our Society, you were called to deliver the package, where is it!?"  Regalus snarled.

It was quite difficult to answer that question considering they had the wrong people, but seeing as Regalus' wand was pointed at Sirius, he decided he better say something, "uh, what package?"

Regalus stared at Rex and Buster's faces for a full minute, then turned around and consulted Malfoy, "they do not have the package, what do we do?"

"Our President won't be too happy about it…" Malfoy frowned.

At that moment, the door creaked open, and in came a man, "what won't I be too happy about?"

All the Death Eaters… no, not Death Eaters, AMS members, bowed their head in respect.  Sirius and oSirius stared at the man in the doorway; _no way_ could that man be the President of the ridiculous society.  "_Arthur Weasley!?  _What are _you doing with these people?"  They both exclaimed._

"Mr. President, they did not acquire the package," Regalus said with a bowed head, ignoring the exclamations.

Arthur shrugged and cocked an eyebrow, "to answer your previous question, I am a pure-blood, why shouldn't I be a part of this Society?  It seems as though you know who I am.  You should therefore know that for not carrying out my request, we will expose your friend's secret for all."

Both Sirius' knew this had to be something serious, and that they should at least act like they cared about what happened to this 'friend'.

"Please don't!"  They both cried out with false concern in their voices.

"I do not accept failure, and for that, through your friend, you will be punished.  I am sure there are other wizards out there who will be willing to help us in our cause," Arthur said calmly, and Sirius and oSirius couldn't helped but be shocked at how much like Voldemort he sounded.

"Come, you are to witness the punishment…" Arthur sneered in a very Snape-like way and turned to the door.  Sirius looked at oSirius, both hoping that they didn't subject an innocent to some punishment, and were thinking of ways out of the situation.

~*~

"AND POTTER SCORES, IT'S 120-90 FOR THE ELVES!"  The commentator screamed into the magical microphones.

Harry and James cheered with the crowds, "I'm so glad we came here!"  Harry exclaimed.

James grinned, "we should do something like this in our world, Summer Quidditch, it'd be great!  Watch the quaffle!"  James yelled to a chaser in the Eastside Elves.  They were both barracking for the Eastside Elves, since they had noticed Harry Potter was a chaser on that team.

No sooner had James yelled that that the seekers of both teams were diving for the golden snitch fluttering near the bottom of the stands.  The crowd held their breath as both seekers accelerated downwards, and both pulled out of the dive, but only one held the snitch.

"270-90, THE EASTSIDE ELVES WIN!"  The commentator roared among the cheering crowds.  Harry and James grinned and patted each other and the back and watched happily as the other Harry (oHarry) whirled in the air and then zoomed in towards a couple standing at the foot of the stands.  One of the pair ruffled oHarry's hair, while the other gave him a hug.  The dimension travellers decided to congratulate the team (and to get a better look at what this world's 'them' looked like)

"Hey Jupiter, you don't look much different," Harry commented to James as they approached the winning team.

"You don't look much alike though, you're a little fatter for one, and you don't have that scar," James commented, "because they can hold something like this during the holidays, I'd assume that this is a non-Voldemort world."

The closer they got to the Potter family, they began to realise that beside James was not Lily Potter, but…

"PETUNIA EVANS!?"  James hadn't meant to say it so loud, but it came out loud, and the person in question turned around and made eye contact with him, "Larry, I think I'm gonna puke!"

"I understand completely!" Harry hurriedly agreed.

Petunia made her way towards them, with the same bony figure and long neck that Harry remembered.

"Did you call me?"  She asked, looking happily from James to Harry, who both looked more than a little sick in the face.

"Uh…" Harry began, but didn't know how to end.

"Uh…" James began, but didn't know how to end.

"Mum, let's go…" oHarry came up behind her, and gave James and Harry a funny look.

"Uh… great game!"  James finished with not-so-quick thinking.

"I know!" Petunia squealed, "I think my son's team will win this year's Summer Holiday Quidditch.  The Daily Prophet loves to publish these types of article for our younger audience, and to be able to interview and write about my own son!"  Harry was slightly curious about how 'great' she'd make her son out to be in her article.  "Oh, would you mind if I took a photo and include some spectator's comments?"  Before either of them could answer, she already had her camera out and had taken a photo of them, "that was a nice photo!"  Harry had a feeling neither of them looked 'nice' in the photo.

At that moment, oJames came up and put his arms around Petunia's and oHarry's shoulders with a proud smile on his face, "celebrations at the Three Broomsticks?" he suggested, and the little family went away to celebrate.

Harry and James just stared after the happy family, jaws slack, unable to compose their thoughts.

"I can't believe it," James whispered, "how did I end up with _her_?  What happened to my Lily?" he sounded like he wanted to cry.

"I can't believe it," Harry whispered back, "how did I become her _spawn_ in this world?" the desperation was also clear in his voice, "wanna follow them and, uh, find out about their pasts?"

James just _had_ to know how he ended up with Petunia of all people, and nodded in agreement.

~*~

"DADDY!"

Remus and Sylvia had wondered the streets of Hogsmeade for a further ten minutes of Harry's and James' departure before they finally found Sylvia's father.  Remus' eyes followed the small form of Sylvia running up to the man and hugging his knees.  Her father lifted her up from and swung her around so that his back faced Remus.

"Daddy's been looking all over for you!  Where have you been?" his stern voice did not betray his happiness, and Remus recognised that voice, but couldn't quite place where he had heard it before.

"I followed a rabbit and got lost, these men helped me look for you!"  Sylvia exclaimed and pointed to Remus.

Sylvia's father placed her down gently on the ground and turned around.

"I don't know how to thank you for your help…" Severus Snape began.

Remus stared open-mouthed, but kept enough wits about him to answer, "it's okay, we did what had to be done."  Remus _knew_ he had to get a photo of this… smiling… Snape.  This Snape was as tall and thin and greasy as the one he knew.  However, this Snape wore black leather robes, black leather pants, and adorned _jewellery_!

"…here, please, have these vouchers for free drinks at the Three Broomsticks, it's the best I can do for you now," Snape was saying, "and I can see you tonight and thank you properly…" Remus didn't really know what Snape was going on about, so he just nodded and accepted the vouchers.

~*~

"I mix the best drinks around here you know.  People tell me every day, they say, 'if I didn't have to work, then you'd be seeing me here all the time downing those things you make in those shaky thingies' and then they go off and tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and so on.  The business is quite good, and I have been established as the most well-known mixer in this continent."

Harry had simply come to get some butterbeer after James and he had finished their dinner, but instead he had glimpsed the shiny white teeth and couldn't escape in time.  The bar was surrounded by swooning females, and Gilderoy Lockhart's winning smile was now directed at Harry, the new-comer.

"Could I please have two butterbeers?" Harry asked a little loudly to over-ride the noise in the Three Broomsticks.

"I'm sorry lad, we're out of butterbeer today.  How about my famous Pumpkin Fantasy?  It blends in the sweetness of pumpkins with a little… something else, my secret ingredient," Lockhart said as he poured some orange liquid into his shaker and ducked under the counter for a moment, then reappeared, shaking the drink merrily, while Harry wondered why the pumpkin juice had to be shaken.  He then popped the lid open, sloshed it into a large mug, and pushed it into Harry's face.

"Here, my boy, try it!"  Lockhart asked eagerly, absolutely confident that Harry would like it.

Harry looked at the drink doubtfully, but took a small sip anyway.  It tasted quite nice, it tasted like…

"It tastes like the pumpkin juice at Hogwarts!"  Harry exclaimed to Lockhart, and could've sworn that Lockhart's hand twitched slightly at that.

Lockhart smiled his flashy-teeth smile, "I assure you my Pumpkin Fantasy is better than any pumpkin juice there is.  Here, you asked for two butterbeers, have two of my Pumpkin Fantasies instead," Harry, slightly surprised that Lockhart remembered that Harry had asked for two drinks in the first place, paid for the drinks, and made his way to the table near the centre where James waited.

James looked up at Harry eagerly, "you got the butterbeer?  Oh, it's pumpkin juice.  I'll drink it anyway.  This world's James is sitting over there by himself, I wanna go talk to him for a moment, do you mind waiting here by yourself?" James was rambling a bit.   Harry shook his head, and James grinned nervously and left.

Harry looked around; the place was quite busy with the majority obviously celebrating the Eastside Elve's victory.  Harry saw Aunt Petunia (Harry will _never see Aunt Petunia as his mother) sitting with a group of women doing what Harry could only think of as gossipping, and oHarry, sitting in front of the stage, surrounded by his team-mates celebrating happily.  He was about to go and join them when someone approached his desk._

"This place is quite full today, do you mind if I take a seat here?"

Harry knew that voice, and looked up to see none other than Albus Dumbledore… looking quite different to the Dumbledore he knew.  Harry nodded numbly and openly stared at Dumbledore, looking away when he realised he was being rude.

Dumbledore chuckled, "haven't you seen an old man with a plait before?" he indicated his hair.

"Uh, no," Harry replied, and he decided to be brave, knowing Dumbledore won't take it offensively, "and I hope I don't offend you, but I've also never seen an old man wearing leather robes and jewellery before."  He looked down at his drink, and blushed slightly.  Who was he to talk about fashion?

"Really?  I rather thought that it was becoming the fashion," Dumbledore answered jovially, and took a drink out of the large mug he was holding, "but then again, I may be a little old and behind the fashion of these times."

"Don't get me wrong, I don't know anything about fashion," Harry admitted.  It was strange seeing this leather-clad and jewel-wearing old man, and if the man himself wasn't sitting right in front of him, Harry would have laughed.  Instead, he just smiled into his drink, hoping that Dumbledore wouldn't see him.

"Did you watch the quidditch game today?"  Dumbledore asked, obviously one who didn't like silence when conversation could be made.

Harry nodded, "yeah, it was great!  Everyone was quite good, the teams seemed well trained, and the seekers, their dives were excellent!"  Harry couldn't help but go on a rant about it; quidditch was one of the few things Harry could have long conversations about.

"Oh?  And do you yourself play quidditch?"  Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Yeah!"  Harry answered before thinking, "I'm a seeker for my House team."

"And what school do you go to?"

"I go to, uh, you've probably never heard of the school before," Harry decided that when he returned to his world he'd have to ask Hermione about some of the different wizarding schools there were.  He just hoped that Dumbledore would accept that answer.

"I think I just may have heard of your school.  You see, I used to be headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so I am quite affiliated with a number of wizarding schools around the world," Dumbledore took a sip of his drink, and set it down on the table with a soft thud.  Harry noticed that Dumbledore was studying him carefully, and became a little nervous.

"I attend… Hogwarts," Dumbledore just said he _used to be the headmaster, so Harry hoped that Dumbledore had stopped working there for the past few years._

"Really?  Now, that school I have heard of," Dumbledore smiled, "I love teaching, but there was another man quite capable of overseeing the duties of headmaster at Hogwarts, so I decided to teach in a different way to the whole world.  Although sometimes I go back to Hogwarts to help the headmaster…" Dumbledore seemed aware of Harry's nervousness, "but I don't see students often anymore."

Harry had hoped Dumbledore would tell him who the headmaster was as he couldn't exactly ask because he was supposedly attending this world's Hogwarts.

"How are you enjoying your studies?" Dumbledore asked in a grand-fatherly way.

"Yeah, it's great," Harry didn't quite know what he was supposed to say.  Should he go on and talk about his favourite subjects?  His favourite teachers?

"Yes, I knew that Thomas Riddle would run the school very well," Harry choked on his drink and spilt it all down his robes.  Dumbledore appeared by his side in an instant and was rubbing his back.

"There there, are you okay?"  He asked concernedly.  Harry nodded, wiping at some of the juice with a napkin.  Dumbledore took his wand out and cast a cleaning charm.

"What is your name, my boy?"  Dumbledore asked.

"Uh, Larry White," Harry replied, looking down at his drink.

"Is there something about Thomas Riddle you would like to talk to me about, Larry?"

"Isn't Riddle Slytherin's heir?" Harry blurted out.

Dumbledore frowned a little, "yes, he is, but I assure you he is a very capable headmaster.  If there are any qualities that you find worrying to have in him as a headmaster, feel free to point them out to the authorities and they should act upon it.  And how did you know he's Slytherin's heir?"

"He acts like a Slytherin," Harry lied, and to his surprise, Dumbledore chuckled.

"Yes, he does, doesn't he?  But he's a good man at heart," Dumbledore looked at his Rolex and sighed, "I was enjoying this conversation, but I must leave now.  Enjoy your pumpkin juice, and take care, Larry."  Dumbledore had put an emphasis on the name, and Harry had a feeling that was due to his inability to lie.

Harry kept his eyes on Dumbledore until he disappeared out the door.  He turned back to his drink.

"Next time, we gotta try this technique!"  One of the Eastside Elves exclaimed.

"Nah, that won't work, we're playing against the Western Werewolves, remember?"  Someone else disagreed.

"Yeah, with Lupin coaching…" for the second time that night, Harry choked on his drink.  He could see James coaching for quidditch, or even Sirius, but his Defense teacher?

~*~

"Yeah, you noticed her camera and the way she went on about the Prophet?  She's a reporter.  I mean, even being a muggle, there are jobs out there in the wizarding world for her," oJames skulled his beer.

James just stared at oJames; well, being a reporter for the Daily Prophet actually suited Petunia, she was quite the gossipper.

"Anyway Jupiter, I've been going on about myself for a while, how about you?  Who's the lady in your life?" oJames slurred a little.

James started, "well, my wife's name is Lily, and she's very pretty, and…"

"Lily?" oJames interrupted, looking startled, "I knew this woman called Lily, she was amazing, and I wanted to marry her," James noticed that oJames had a bit much to drink, "but she went off with _him!  I _trusted_ him!"  He slammed his mug onto the table, "then Petunia was there for me…" he dropped his head onto the table, and snored._

James sat up and shook oJames' shoulder, "tell me!  Who's 'him'!?"  But it was no use, oJames was out cold.

~*~

Remus walked into the crowded place.  The Three Broomsticks was sure popular today, and a quick look at some banners told him why; the Eastside Elves won in the Summer Holiday Quidditch, and there will be a live band tonight.  Remus saw James sitting in a corner with another James, and Harry sitting alone at a small table near the centre of the room.  He made his way towards Harry, moving around all the people, and took the vacant seat there.

Harry looked up from wiping his robes, "hey Professor… I mean Re… no Johnathan," Harry smiled sheepishly, "do you mind magicking this off for me?" Harry pointed to his robes.  Remus smiled kindly and cleaned his robes for him.

"Ah, much better," Harry commented.

"And was there a reason for your clumsiness?"  Remus cocked an eyebrow.

Harry grinned and took a sip, "well, have a guess at what you do in this world."

"… the Southern Serpents have quite a strong team too, what with Weasley as the seeker…" one of oHarry's friends were saying quite loudly.

"And Granger's got quite the power as a Beater…"

Harry was never gladder that he belonged to the wizarding world where spills could easily be magicked away, otherwise he would have had to change his robes for the third time that night.  Remus looked at Harry amusedly.

"So what am I in this world?"

"You coach the Western Werewolves," Harry stated simply, and looked at Remus closely for his reaction.

Remus just chuckled, "and I would really call my own team the Werewolves?"

"Maybe no-one knows you're an actual werewolf?  And I just can't imagine you drilling in strategies like Wood used to, he was obsessive!"

"Perhaps teaching is just a strong point of mine…" Remus began, when there was a drum-roll, and the lights dimmed.

A lone spotlight shone on the stage, glaring white light shining from Lockhart's super-clean white teeth.

"Witches and wizards, the moment you've been waiting for!  Tonight's entertainment is the world acclaimed band, THE TEACHLES!"

A fast drum-beat began with some bass, while Lockhart did a little dance to the music (imagine Mr. Bean dance).  Soon the rhythm and lead guitar was brought in, with the music building up to a climax, and as the climax was reached, Lockhart apparated to the side of the stage and in his place was The Teachles.

Harry and Remus gaped as The Teachles strummed/beat like professionals and head-banged with their music.  Lockhart made his way to centre stage again, the spotlight following him as he glided towards the centre.

"And let me introduce, vocals and lead guitar, SEVERUS SNAPE!"

Snape reached some very high notes on the microphone as the crowd rang with screams, his eyes closed as he sang with his heart (imagine Steve Tyler singing) and his fingers flew over the board as he picked out a very fast riff.

"Bass, ARGUS FILCH!"

Filch looked unhappy as ever as he played a blues-style bass tune.  The crowd cheered just loudly for him as they did for Snape.

"Rhythm, ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!"

Dumbledore strummed a few simple chords, and he was humming a simple tune as he did so, the crowd had quietened for this display, and roared after Dumbledore smiled and bowed his head.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaand on the drums, MINNERVA MCGONAGALL!"

The music stopped totally as McGonagall beat the ### out of the drums as though they were her past students.  She had her hair done Beatle-style.  The music started again after her drum solo, and she wiped her brow with her sequin adorned robe sleeve.

Remus recovered quicker than Harry did.

"Oh Harry, I forgot to tell you that I saw Snape today, he looked really different to the Snape we know," he commented.

Harry just gaped and didn't seem to comprehend what Remus said.

~*~

Earlier on…

"So where are we going now?"  Sirius asked Arthur as he was being pulled along by rope alongside oSirius.

"We need to make preparations on how to best expose your friend's secret," Arthur answered.

"And why are we going to the bookstore for that?" oSirius inquired.

"We need a thesaurus to determine which terms will have the most effect on the audience we are exposing this secret to," Regalus looked to Arthur worriedly, "Mr. President, it looks as though the store is closed.  I sent a letter to Pettigrew to leave it open for us, perhaps he did not receive the message…"

Sirius scoffed, "of course it is, it's past 5:00, you just had to stop for that hamburger, didn't you?  I don't think they'd open it especially for you…"

"Hey, maybe we can help you, we are very knowledgeable in our vocabulary," oSirius suggested, quite curious about what this 'secret' was.

"Be quite!  We can do this without your help, or anyone's, or anything's elses help!"  Arthur roared.

"Settle petal, we were just trying to be helpful," Sirius said soothingly.

"Perhaps Skeeter can help us…" Malfoy suggested.

Arthur rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "yes, you are correct, she is one to use fancy words."

"I'm actually feeling a little hungry, perhaps she can provide us with dinner," Regalus admitted.

And the group made it towards the other side of Hogsmeade.

~*~

"Do you mind if I place my drink on your table?" an all-too-familiar misty voice came from above.

"Uh, go ahead," Harry replied, as Trelawny placed her large mug on the table and sighed.

"I have foreseen that my partner will be appearing here tonight…" she began to no-one in particular as Harry turned back to the stage.

After Remus had brought Harry back to reality, Harry had been able to comprehend all that he was seeing.  Four of Hogwart's staff members were in a rock-band, clad in leather, wearing jewelry, and singing meaningful songs.  Harry now understood what Dumbledore meant by 'teaching in a different way to the whole world', they were teaching through their songs.  But to have Snape singing?  Harry would never have imagined that Snape could carry a tune, not to mention reach high notes.  Although the band name and McGonagall's hair suggested Beatles-style music, it was otherwise, it was a little more heavy, a little more rock.

"… And if you let your worries go Then you've only got strength to show" 

The crowd screamed as Snape finished the song, and the loudness of the cheering compared to that on the Quidditch pitch.  The band really was quite popular, and Harry could see oHarry with fingers in his mouth whistling loudly.

No-one expected there to be any tomatoes…

~*~

James had recovered his ability to speak.  He looked at oJames as he jerked awake to the music.  Although oJames still looked drunk, the look he gave the band was one James was glad he was not on the receiving end of.

As the song finished, oJames reached into his pocket, pulled out his wand, and summoned a basket of tomatoes.

"TAKE THAT YOU CHEAT!"  oJames screamed as he threw the tomatoes at an unsuspecting Snape.

James thought he was just having fun, and threw some as well.

Snape looked at oJames horrified, and Dumbledore quickly conjured a shield.  Dumbledore looked upon oJames calmly.

"And to what occasion do we owe this greeting?" he asked amiably.

Wobbling as he stood up, oJames slurred, "I trusted you _Snape, and then you go off with my true love, even though you knew I loved her!"_

"Lily is an intelligent woman, she was well aware for what reasons she made her decision; she followed her heart," Snape replied, and the audience sighed at the beautiful reply.

Petunia gasped and stood up, whispered something quickly to oHarry, and made her way to oJames, her hands on his arms.

"I'm sorry everyone," she said to the whole room, obviously enjoying being the centre of attention, "my husband isn't one who can take in a lot of alcohol, and talks about nonsense once he's drunk," she turned to oJames, "come on dear, lets take you home…"

~*~

Remus looked on in wonder; James and Petunia, that's a laugh!

"Sorry about that," Snape said to the audience after he had cleaned his robes with the wave of his wand, "just an old dispute.  And although I am not here to talk about my personal life, I would like to thank that man over there," the spotlight was on Remus as soon as Snape pointed at him, "for helping my lost daughter this afternoon," a round of 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the audience.  "And for that, I'm giving you a copy of each of our albums," the albums appeared on Remus' table, "and I'd like to dedicate this song to you…"

While Snape was talking, James had made his way back to Harry's table, pushing past Trelawny, he talked loudly over the music.

"I see, so Sylvia was Snape's daughter, that's just scary!"  James said.

"Look at that!"  Harry pointed to the albums.

On the cover was a moving picture of the whole band, in very model-like poses.  Each album had different pictures, and Filch was even smiling in one of them, which was scary.

"Wait until Snape sees these!"  James exclaimed, looking at the album where Snape was dressed in a white sequined outfit, hair tied back in a high ponytail, and _smiling_, not sneering.

The music suddenly stopped, as another voice came on the microphone.

"Witches and wizards, I would like to interrupt this performance to bring you some breaking news," the wizard on the microphone was none other than Arthur Weasley.  Harry wondered if there was something wrong at the Ministry, and he continued, "recently it had come to our attention that there are… frauds… among our famous wizards," Harry instantly thought of Lockhart, "and one of them are here today… let me introduce to you Gilderoy Lockhart!"

All eyes moved to Lockhart, who tried to run away but was stopped by Malfoy and Regalus.

"You see, what you have been drinking all these years are not Lockhart's creations, but somebody's elses," he said as Lockhart was brought onto the stage, "for example, the so-called Pumpkin Fantasy is just the ordinary pumpkin juice from Hogwarts, delivered by his faithful house-elf all the way here to deceive you!"

"It was not my idea!"  Lockhart protested, "Buster and Rex suggested it, and they steal most of the recipes!"  Lockhart's wild eyes scanned the crowd, "see!  There they are!  It was all their idea!  I was simply to sell them because I am the best looking out of us three!  They could never sell drinks, no-one would ever approach them!"

Harry looked to where Lockhart was pointing at… Sirius and oSirius?  In his opinion, Buster and Rex was not bad looking, but Lockhart always did have a high opinion of himself.

The audience had long ago become quiet, and The Teachles just stood silently in the background.  Arthur looked at where Lockhart was pointing, and then looked confusedly to the side of the stage.  Nott appeared from the side with rope in hand, and pulled forth another Buster and Rex.

"There are two of you!"  Arthur exclaimed.

"I told you we weren't the people you were looking for," Sirius replied matter-of-factly, only to be faced with a wand and a reversal spell.

"Sirius Black!"  Everyone exclaimed.

Harry, James, and Remus looked at each other worriedly; if they exposed oSirius as well, or the Sirius of this world walked in, there'd be a bit of a situation.  But before they could do anything, a voice next to them screeched.

"Honey!  I've been waiting all night for you!  My 'eye' foresaw that you would appear, but not in this situation!  We are going home right now darling, prolonging our stay in these people's presence will surely cloud our eyes more, Sirius Junior is waiting for us at home," Trelawny made her way to Sirius' side, who gaped at her in alarm.

"Trelawny!?"

"Yes dear, I know who I am.  Let's go."

Arthur turned to oSirius and raised his wand, "and now I am curious as to who you might be…"

But before he could cast the spell, there was an explosion as the real Buster and Rex threw a bomb to distract the AMS members that were approaching them, and made their way to the front door.  Lockhart looked very panicked, and fainted when Nott threatened to slap his face if he made a move.  James took the chance and freed Sirius and oSirius, and the group made for the back door.

"Sirius, you still owe me five hundred galleons!"  Regalus cried as he grabbed hold of Sirius' sleeve.

"Uh, ask me again later," Sirius said and pulled his arm free.

"I'm gonna tell mum about this!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah, go cry to mummy!" he said under his breath as he followed James.

Harry and Remus, who were not on the AMS 'to catch' list, made use of this fact by stunning a lot of the members.

"Who dares go against us?"  Malfoy roared as he looked wildly around him, and then fell as a stunner hit him.

Harry felt someone grab his arm.

"You dare go against us, boy?" Crabbe breathed in his face.

Harry was about to reply when Crabbe fell down.  Harry saw Dumbledore standing behind Crabbe, wand raised.

"No-one hurts a student while the Teachles are here!"  Dumbledore said, "and I daresay, you and your friends need to leave quickly."

Harry smiled a thanks, and Remus and Harry quickly made their way to the back exit.

"After them!"  They could hear someone yelling behind them.

"Great, we have to go to that place in the forest, which is on the other side of Hogsmeade!"  James, Sirius, and oSirius had been waiting outside for them, and were now running.

"I think it'll be quicker if we transformed," Harry suggested.

"I can't believe I'm with _her in this world!" Sirius whined before he transformed into a dog._

"You won't believe what else we've seen then," Remus said lightly as he mounted Harry's form and Harry flew to the clearing.

Upon reaching they clearing, everyone resumed their human forms and they quickly travelled back to their own world.

~*~

AN: and there ends the interlude chapter.  You know, if I had included everything I wanted, then you guys would have had to wait for even longer for this update.  This chapter is quite long as it is.

I was going to call the band SMAF, as a rip-off of SMAP, but I decided most of you might not know the group.  They are a Japanese guy group (I guess they are kinda like Backstreet Boys).  Anyway, SMAF would have stood for the surnames of everyone in the group.  I then didn't know what to call them, so I thought that The Teachles would do (and I LOVE The Beatles!)  As for members of the Teachles, I just thought I'd include the people who we were least likely to imagine in the band (other possiblities were Percy Weasley, Trelawny, Vernon Dursley… who said it had to be wizards?).  And if you just imagine those people in the 70/80's style rock-band with all the funny clothes and jewelry, you get The Teachles!

I had originally thought Lockhart would be good in the band, but decided that if he was even going to act slightly like the Lockhart we know, then he wouldn't want to share any of his fame.  So I thought it'd be amusing if he was famous for something that's not his again.

A reviewer actually suggested Snape marry Lily, so I did that.  They also suggested having a fat Harry, but the way I did it, I just can't imagine Harry being fat if his parents aren't, so I made him a little larger than usual, which can be compared to Petunia spoiling Dudley.

I thought Petunia would make a nice rebound for James, and it also suggests a thought I had about Petunia.  If she hated magic so much, how did she remember something about the dementors (in OoTP)?  I thought, well, maybe she had fancied James, and hated both James and Lily and anything magic related after they got together.  Sound plausible?

Summer Quidditch, now that's something I haven't seen in any other fics I've read.  I thought having Hermione as a beater was totally out of character for her, so therefore I incorporated it into this fic.

Is it so obvious that Pettigrew is not a favourite character?  But at least he's mentioned, in my first version I totally forgot about him!  I just wasn't sure how to fit him in, I was thinking of having him in a gay relationship with Sirius, but Sirius would have been furious if I did that, I mean, Trelawny's bad enough!  But yeah, I doubt Sirius would have recovered from _that_ shock.

I wondered how to fit Tom Riddle in.  I thought, 'well, that Phineas fellow was a headmaster, so why not Riddle?' and not to mention Riddle probably enjoys being the leader of something, ruling over people, so he's the headmaster of Hogwarts.  

It probably became obvious to you that I rushed the end a little, otherwise I would have brought in Lily and some others as well, but I did want to get this chapter done quickly so I can begin to work on the story again.  Any comments or suggestions, please leave a review or send an email to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au

Ask Snape should be updated soon!

Toodles~


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Sorry for the wait! That wasn't two months already, was it? I sure hope not. Anyway, thanks to all reviewers! Your comments and criticisms were great. To those of you who suggested yet _another_ world where this and that happen, that won't be happening anytime soon, if ever, because Harry needs to return to his world for my story to finish off, whenever that may be. Thanks for the suggestions anyway! I'm glad most of you liked the last chapter and that you can relate to my whacked sense of humour.

****

Brenna8, SiriusAboutMarauders (I did okay in my exams, thanks!)**, SilverKnight7, HarryGryffinGirl** (I'll take that as a compliment ^^)**, Authoress, Solaris Isa, Realm of darkness, Sweet A.K, Mark Evans, supernova8610, sarcastic spastic, Harriet Jamina Potter, Kateri1, Potter-Freak123 **(I laughed when I read your review!)**, risi, Spellman, jasmine2003, ananova, ping*pong5, Acacia Jules **(I sent you an email regarding your criticism, hope you've checked it! Thanks for the review too!)**, Space Density, incoherentdozyprat** (just checked my mail the other day, haven't had a chance to reply yet though, sorry!)**, Avestia, Romm, **and **Torri**

Disclaimer: anything you recognise belongs to JKR! Did anyone actually think I owned it!?

~*~

It was 10:45am, and Harry was waiting on platform 9¾ for the Hogwarts Express. He was fifteen minutes early and no one was there yet. Although he was alone, it was the first time he did not feel alone at all as he waited and thought about his holidays and all the people who were out there who actually loved him. It was a nice feeling to know that during the holidays he could return to people he loved.

After leaving the twisted world in which his father was married to one of the worst people ever and Snape was in a rock-band, the Marauders had hurriedly made copies of the bands' album and sent them to the band members' counterparts. (Chapter 12, for those of you who skipped it, is not really important to the continuation of this story).

Several days before the 1st of September, Harry had even helped in a prank by helping deliver a letter bomb to the man who did not let Magnolia use the phone in his house (chapter 10). Upon opening, the blind bomb would explode and leave him blinded for several days, while the stink pellets rocketed throughout his house and paint bombs decorated the exterior some very bright colours. Although Harry was not usually one to play pranks on people, he really felt this man deserved it for not letting Magnolia use a phone in a time of need, and especially for being rude about it.

Two hours ago, Harry had been at Hogwarts with his luggage and new books that one of the staff members had kindly purchased for Harry during his absence. He had also been in the presence of not one, but two of the people, or person, that he hated the most…

~*~

About two hours earlier at Hogwarts (in Harry's world)…

"…my, that is most fascinating," Dumbledore commented as he rested his chin on his steepled fingers, looking at Harry over his half-moon glasses.

Harry transformed with a 'pop' back into human, as he pushed his glasses up a little on the bridge of his nose and looked out at the bright sky outside. His father and oSirius had left half an hour earlier back to their world for some 'order business', they had said cryptically, after dropping Harry off at Dumbledore's office.

"I am sure you will find some information on your form in the library, and such a beautiful form it is! As the school term has not yet officially begun, I can tell you that you can do quite a bit of rule-breaking with your form! Although in several hours I'd be telling you not to break any rules!" Harry laughed at Dumbledore's humour, "Not only was that a wonderful tale of your adventures, you also bring me a souvenir of your journeys! I am very grateful for that," a copy of 'The Teachles- Number One Hits' was on Dumbledore's desk, and Dumbledore merrily waved at the band members on the cover, who waved back, looking as out-of-character as ever; Snape was _smiling_, Filch was downed with jewelry, McGonagall was beating furiously at the drums, and Dumbledore was most thrilled that his counterpart was wearing leather.

There was a knock on the door, and the album disappeared with a wave of Dumbledore's wand.

In walked Snape, cloak billowing in all his bat-like glory. Harry and Dumbledore made eye contact for a brief moment, both obviously thinking of the album that Dumbledore had just hidden, and stifled their laughter.

Snape ignored it, knowing Dumbledore's eccentric tendencies, and just asked, "you asked to see me, Headmaster?" he gave Harry a dirty look as though to say _what have you done this time, Potter?_ Harry wondered again what Snape was asked to do at the end of the Third Task, but really doubted he would get an answer if he asked.

"Severus, if you could stay with us for a few moments, our guests should be arriving shortly," Dumbledore answered, and conjured a comfortable looking cushioned chair next to Harry's, across from Dumbledore's desk. Snape shot Harry a quick look and sat down.

"And who might these guests be?" Snape asked curiously.

"Once they arrive, it'll be easier to explain things," Dumbledore said. 

As if on cue, there were three quick raps on the door and in came the dimension travellers, plus their passenger.

Snape stood up quickly and looked to Dumbledore.

"What is the meaning of this!?" he snarled as he looked from James, to oSirius, and then to oSnape, a slight glint of fear in his eyes. Harry wondered if Snape was more fearful of seeing James alive, or of seeing another Snape. Harry laughed within himself at the thought of Snape realising just how scary he could look.

Dumbledore looked quite amused at Snape's reaction, and said in a polite voice, "Severus, meet some people from another dimension. I am sure you recognize some of them for their counterparts…"

Snape suddenly rounded on Harry, who took a surprised step back, "did Potter have something to do with this?"

Seeing this, James and oSirius stepped in front of Harry in defense, "don't you go picking on him!" oSirius yelled.

"Pick on someone your own size!" James poked Snape in the chest, and Snape looked too surprised for words at James.

Harry looked shocked, and oSnape sneered, "it would seem that your Potter is as much of a troublemaker as ours."

Ignoring oSnape, Dumbledore explained, "you are mistaken, Severus, you see, James and Sirius have done some research…"

It took merely half an hour for Dumbledore to recount James and oSirius' adventure, and Snape nodded understandingly, although eyes still wide.

"Now," Dumbledore said, "Severus, I would like you to take, ah, Severus, with you and explain to him what our Voldemort situation is like here." He then turned to oSnape, "thank you, Severus, for helping us."

oSnape declined his head politely, and followed Snape out of the room, but not before giving Harry and the Marauder's identical death glares.

"Happy people, aren't they?" oSirius commented as soon as the door closed.

"Happy person, Sirius, they're two of the one and the same," James muttered under his breath.

"I still can't believe we were just in a room with two of them!" oSirius exclaimed. 

"They really do look the same don't they? As greasy and sallow-skinned…" James began.

Harry remembered the message that was to be given to Dumbledore, "Professor Dumbledore, the other Dumbledore said that for you to be able to lock Voldemort's powers, you need to create a spell from one that you can find at 'In our volt, Aberforth's candles right'." Harry looked at Dumbledore expectantly, expecting an explanation.

Dumbledore chuckled, "I see, that is most helpful."

"But what does it _mean_?" James asked.

"In our family, when it is our birthday, the number of candles on the cake is usually our favourite number that year, which is usually the score of the winning Quidditch team when it's my birthday. Aberforth, however, always stuck with the same number, which was the number of people in a Quidditch team, plus the number of people in our family, plus the number of bedrooms in our house, plus the number of owls our family owned, plus his birth date. So whatever it is must be in that volt number in our family volt," Dumbledore explained, and Harry wondered if everyone in Dumbledore's family were as strange as Dumbledore himself, and how the other Dumbledore could make up such a clue, "thank you for relaying that information Harry, I will see to it as soon as possible."

"So where is your volt?" oSirius asked curiously.

"That is for me to know, and for you not to know," Dumbledore answered him mysteriously, with a twinkle in his eye, and Harry wondered briefly just how Dumbledore made his eyes do that and wondered if he could learn that trick as well. Dumbeldore suddenly turned towards Harry with a gentle smile, "Harry, it is time you go to the station."

The sudden change in topic surprised him, "what?"

James chuckled at the disbelief on Harry's face, "it's a tradition to go on the Hogwarts Express, you can't miss it. Your luggage can stay here, but you have to go on the ride."

"But…" Harry began to protest, wanting to know when he can see them again. Dumbledore spoke up.

"Your godfather is waiting in the Entrance Hall and will escort you to the station, and you will see James and Sirius again in the near future. Also, everything that has happened is to remain a secret, I believe Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley are eager to keep your secrets also. And one more thing, when you tell them that you have met people from another world, then you are not to say how it is done, but only that James and Sirius are the only ones who can do it, lest they try to find a way themselves and attempt to travel across dimensions."

James patted Harry on the shoulder, "we have some Order business to attend to, we'll see you soon."

"Don't try to stay out of trouble," oSirius said with a straight face, and waved solemnly.

~*~

So Sirius, in dog form, had trotted happily alongside Harry out of the Hogwart's grounds and apparated both himself and Harry to a place near the station. Harry was left waiting on Platform 9 ¾, and Sirius had left on the cryptic 'Order' business. No one had explained to him what this 'Order' was yet, and he promised himself he would get some answers next time he saw James or Sirius.

"Harry!"

Harry turned to look for the source of the voice and was bombarded with a mass of red.

"Oh Harry! How are you?"

"I'm fine thanks, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said into her shoulder as she hugged him. Ron snickered, and although this was supposed to be an embarrassing scene, Harry did not feel embarrassed at all, being hugged was quite a nice feeling, "and how was your holiday?"

"It's always great to have the children back, although it can be a little too noisy sometimes," Mrs. Weasley shot Fred and George a quick look, who smirked in return.

"Hey Harry, did you like our presents?" Fred asked, a huge grin on his face.

"Were they useful?" George added. Harry raised an eyebrow, and wondered if they really believed Harry would use such things on his cousin, keeping in mind the punishment that Uncle Vernon would have given him.

"I'd hope not!" Mrs. Weasley huffed. Although she was not aware of what Fred and George had been doing over the holidays and what they sent Harry, she was aware that anything from them couldn't be anything other than prank-ware. The platform was starting to become more crowded and noisy as more families arrived with their pets. Seamus arrived and waved at them, and Harry saw further along the platform Neville looking flustered with his grandma; Neville must have forgotten something again.

"They were, thank you," Harry smiled, and he turned towards Ron with a grin, "and thank you for your present too Ron, very… subtle, it was."

Ron grinned back, "it does get boring winning in chess all of the time, some of you really do need to improve," Ron said pompously with an air very similar to Percy, "oh and you wouldn't believe this!"

"What?" Harry asked curiously, wondering what had gotten Ron excited. Was it the new dress robes the twins had promised to buy him? Or did they get him a new broom?

"I'm a Prefect!" Ron exclaimed, pointing excitedly to his shining Prefect badge that Harry hadn't noticed before, "I mean, I wasn't excited about it before, because Fred and George were being kinda nasty about it, but think about all the things I can do now that I'm a Prefect!"

"Ronald, you will not abuse the status that you have been given!" Mrs. Weasley scolded.

"Yeah mum, I know. And Hermione's a Prefect too!"

"I didn't expect any less," Harry was happy for Ron. He had such a great holiday that he did not even give a thought about who would be Prefect in their year. 

"And I got a new broom from my parents…" Ron continued.

"And we bought him some dress robes for the occasion," Fred added.

Ron gave the twins a skeptic look, "yeah, the twins bought me some new robes, I haven't tried them on yet though…"

"He's afraid we jinxed them or something," George explained to Harry with a wink. Harry knew that the twins would keep their end of the bargain.

As Harry exchanged greetings with Ginny, Hermione appeared through the wall, and behind her were her parents, who Harry had only seen before on one or two occasions, with Mr. Weasley.

"Dad wanted to escort the Grangers with the Knight Bus," Ron explained to Harry, as Hermione saw them and rushed over, Prefect badge gleaming in the sun.

"It is wonderful to see you all again! How were your holidays?" Hermione gave them quick hugs.

"Hello children, hi Harry! I was just showing the Grangers some ways that wizards travel…" Arthur began to say, and Harry noticed how pale the Grangers looked, especially Mrs. Granger, the pale face really brought out her freckles. Even Mr. Granger's bushy brown hair looked wind-swept.

"Yes Arthur, now the children need to get on the Hogwarts Express before it leaves," Molly interrupted, well aware that Arthur was in 'lecture mode' while the Muggles were still present.

Arthur looked at his watch, "oh my, it is almost time! And I'll be late for work!" Arthur exclaimed, "Molly, can you take the Grangers back…"

"That is fine Mr. Weasley, we can get back to our place from here by our own means," Mr. Granger said, a little hurriedly. The Weasley children obviously noticed, as they grinned at each other. Mr. Weasley, however, was oblivious to the Granger's discomfort with travelling by Knight Bus.

"I need to get going, remember to write! And I'll see you sometime, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Mr. Weasley called as he apparated away.

"Now children, behave yourselves this year!" Mrs. Weasley said pointedly, giving Fred and George long hard looks, while Hermione was saying her good-byes to her parents.

"Yes, mother!" They both said at the same time. Mrs. Weasley suddenly had both of them in a hug, and they both struggled to free themselves from their mother's iron grip.

"Mum, please let go," Fred said a little urgently, as two Ravenclaw girls walked by and giggled at the scene.

She let go, and the twins stepped back, looking very embarrassed with faces to match their hair. Ron stepped back from Mrs. Weasley as she advanced on him.

"See you in the holidays mum," he said quickly, and began to take his luggage to the train.

Looking not the least bit put-off, Mrs. Weasley gave Ginny a hug, who accepted it warmly. She gave Harry another hug, and then stood their watching them make their way onto the train with their luggage.

Ron quickly found an empty compartment, and stored his luggage.

"Hey Harry, where's your stuff?" Ron asked.

Harry stepped out of the way of the twins moving towards the front of the train, obviously seeking their next victim, as he said, "it's at Hogwarts already. I've got so much to tell you, but we gotta wait for Hermione as well…"

Hermione walked up to Harry from behind, "Ron, why did you put your stuff here? We have to be in the Prefect compartment to discuss the schedule for meetings and the rules we are to uphold as Prefects," she said bossily, then turned to Harry, "Harry, I'd love to catch up with you, but as Prefects, we need to…"

"It's okay Hermione," Harry cut her off, slightly disappointed that he couldn't share his adventures yet, "we can talk tonight." Even as he said it, he felt a pang of sadness, "I can catch up on some sleep while I'm here."

"What's your stuff doing at Hogwarts?" Ron said, while Hermione was pulling on his sleeve.

"We can talk later, we'll be late for the meeting!" She exclaimed, as the two of them left the compartment with Harry inside all alone.

Harry looked at the spot where the two of them were. He _was_ happy for them, but he felt a little bit left out. _Why wasn't I made a Prefect?_ He wondered, and realised he was being a little big-headed, _it's a good thing I wasn't a Prefect, think of all the responsibilities on top of being The-Boy-Who-Lived, and Ron would have been livid!_

Yawning, Harry decided that sleep was indeed a necessity, and found a comfortable position to rest in.

Just as Harry was about to doze off, Ginny entered with another girl Harry had never met before. Harry was split between wanting them to stay for company, and wanting them to leave so that he could sleep.

"Hiya Harry! Did you see where Fred and George went?" She asked; Harry noticed she no longer became red in the face when speaking with him, and he was glad. At least now he could have some conversation with the girl.

"I saw them going that way," Harry pointed towards the front of the train.

"Thanks. Oh, I'm sorry, I should have introduced you. Harry, this is Luna Lovegood. Luna, Harry Potter," Ginny said, and Luna gave Harry the quick once-over, and Harry was glad that she didn't stare at his scar. It wasn't the nicest thing, to be introduced to a person, only to have that person stare at your forehead.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Luna said dreamily, "I don't believe what Rita Skeeter wrote about you last year."

"Thank you, nice to meet you too," Harry said, there was something strange about this girl, "so what do you need the twins for?"

"They haven't returned my quill," Ginny said.

"You can borrow mine…" Harry began.

Ginny waved him off, and grinned evilly, "nah, that's fine! I wanted to show Luna a spell I read about during the holidays that could forge people's writing. I wanted to try to forge mum's writing to scare my brothers…"

Laughing out loud, Harry said, "you are truly your brothers' sister!" And Ginny beamed.

"I'll take that as a compliment! Well, I wanna get started on that spell, so I need to look for my quill, I hope they haven't done anything silly with it…" Ginny said as she left, waving behind her.

"Good-bye, Harry," Luna said softly, and left after Ginny.

Harry waved after them, and then dozed off.

~*~

"Well, well, look who we have here! It's Potty, all by himself!"

Malfoy looked at the sleeping form of Harry with disgust, "where are your friends, Potty? Has Mudblood and Weasel abandoned you? That's no surprise, they wouldn't want to be in your presence if it's going to get them killed…"

Harry snored loudly then, and Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle in confusion, then slowly took out his wand, "look at that," he sneered, "he's so scared of us that he's feigning sleep, hoping we'd just go away. We don't go away that easy, Potter…" Malfoy moved forward to attack Harry when an explosion went off in the compartment.

There were shouts and screaming, and Malfoy's screeches could easily be heard down the whole train, "my eyes! My eyes! I can't see!" People in other compartments would have thought it was a girl screaming.

"That's okay Malfoy, we'll _see_ to it that you are safely delivered to where you belong," said one of the twins. And they bodily hauled the blind boys off to the toilets and locked them in there. There were heads poking out of compartments to see what the commotion was about, and as most of them were Gryffindors in that area, they all laughed along at the sounds that beheld them.

"That was brilliant!" Lee Jordan exclaimed, listening to the Slytherin's cries to be let out, "I didn't know Malfoy could scream like a girl!"

"Too bad we don't have one of those Muggle recording things…" George laughed.

"A success! Our Blind Bombs are a blast!" Fred said as they walked towards Harry's compartment.

"Hey Harry, did you see that? Maybe you didn't 'cos you were blinded as well, but still, their screams will reach us in our dreams…" George said, but stopped abruptly as he noticed that Harry did not wake up in the commotion, but was still snoring softly in his sleep.

"Look guys, he's still asleep! Should we try one of the new…" Lee began, but George cut him off.

"We're not trying anything on Harry," he said firmly.

"Let's look for Neville, he has a toad we can try it on…" Fred said. And the three boys left Harry's compartment.

~*~

"Professor! We've tried everything and he just won't wake up!"

Professor Sprout and Professor Vector were scheduled to take the students to the castle by the horseless carriages that day. Professor Sprout turned around as she heard the voice.

"Mr. Longbottom, who won't wake up?" She looked a little surprised at the sight of Neville and the bright yellow and red toad on Neville's shoulder.

"It's Harry! We told him to wake up, and shook him, Fred tried yelling in his face, Lee tried some explosions, and then Dean got some cold water and splashed it on his face, but he just won't wake up!" Neville was in a panicked state and began to babble, "he just kept on snoring, and even the twins tried some spells but…"

"Mr. Longbottom, where is he?"

"In compartment, uh, number 34!" Neville pointed to the carriage.

"Go and alert Professor Vector to the situation, I will take care of this," Professor Sprout hurried into the Hogwarts Express. Even without knowing which carriage Harry was in, she could have found it anyway with all the people surrounding the doorway trying to get a look.

"Harry mate, come on!" One of the Weasley twins yelled.

"Please wake up, Harry!" One of the girls begged, and as she moved closer Professor Sprout saw that it was Ginny.

"Students, out of the way!"

The crowded students all moved apart as the professor came. She made a brief medical check on Harry and then tried several spells on him, but Harry was still snoring away.

"Students, you are to go to the castle, I will handle the situation," she commanded.

"Is he okay?" Seamus asked quietly.

"Is he… dead?" Lavender asked, horrified, and Parvati let out a cry.

"Of course he's not dead, stupid," Dean said, "he was still breathing."

"But Professor Trelawny…" Lavender began fearfully.

"To the carriages, all of you!" Professor Sprout exclaimed as she lifted Harry's light weight into her arms. As the students all left reluctantly, Professor Sprout practically ran outside and apparated to a point closer to the castle, and ran all the way to the castle with Harry in her arms.

~*~

__

The room was dark with but a candle resting on the floor that exerted the dimmest of light. From what he could see of the dark room, it was empty except for a chair, a person in it, and a person kneeling in front of it, who was visibly shaking.

__

"You question why I would go to all the troubles of doing this?" a voice hissed from the chair, a voice Harry knew too well.

"I am merely worried that the powers might affect you, My Lord…" a voice Harry did not recognise answered, trembling, "we could have abducted him just before…" 

"You heard the Lady, we need him to succeed, and if he does not remember anything, he will be easier to obtain and manipulate. Just before, he had too many protections," the cold hissing voice explained, "and we can do that with this in our hands," a skeletal white hand held up a beautiful blue stone, and Harry thought foolishly that the stone was the same colour as Sirius' eyes.

Harry then looked at the person holding the stone, and saw two red orbs glaring at him, and then the voice whispered, "oblivio…"

~*~

AN: I know, I know, I had to stop there otherwise the next chapter will be short. To me, that chapter was hard to write, it's just so difficult writing in all the usual Weasleys/Hermione/Harry interaction as they meet on the platform.

Some questions: should the two Snapes get along or not? I mean, it'd be amusing if they didn't get along 'cos they couldn't stand each other (I mean, who could stand being in the presence of our esteemed Potions Master?), but it'd also be amusing if they got along 'cos they understood each other so well. Suggestions?

Those of you who've read OoTP will notice I stole the idea as having Ron for Prefect, sorta. Well, Ron can be brave, and he is loyal, and I think that if Harry was Prefect then Ron would be spewing blood, if you get my meaning (it's an expression I've picked up somewhere that means he'd be really angry). It's obvious that Ron would be really jealous of Harry and it would affect their friendship. And no doubt Dumbledore wouldn't want to see that happening, so he chose the second best option for Prefect, and when Ron's serious he could be a really good Prefect. Also, gives Gred and Forge the chance to give Ronniekins his new dress robes.

Although I may include some elements from OoTP, this will NOT be a rewrite of OoTP (for one, you-know-who, and I'm not referring to Voldemort, will not be dying. I can go off on a rant about this topic, but will not spoil it for those who have not read it) there will be NO Umbridge, I can't stand her! And none of that Department of Mysteries stuff. I have already decided on who the new DADA professor is, and you'll see in the next chapter. Ginny will not be in love with Harry anymore, I've also stolen that from OoTP, it'd be a little difficult to write scenes where she's always running away!

I just had to have a Malfoy interaction in this, and I just had to have the 'my eyes, my eyes…' part in it as well. It's a bit of an obsessions stemming from 'Raputa' when my friend pointed out the humour in it, if you've seen it you'll understand… "me ga, me ga!"

As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, critiques, please leave a review or write to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au. Cheers!

~ultrasoul


	14. Chapter 14

AN: Well, this is quite a quick update, by my standards! Hope you like it!

Thanks to all reviewers, I'm sorry if I miss anyone:

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Realm of darkness- thanks for the kind review, when I was first thinking of writing this, I had some trouble thinking of how to differentiate characters from different dimensions, but yay, glad I pulled it off!

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Rdufthjhjkgyvftcuh- yay, updated!

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Romm- was Voldie trying to obliviate Harry? You'll see, it's not that simple…

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Marauders-Lover- Hmm, that's an idea. From what I've planned out in my head though, the two Snapes are unfortunately not together often, I'll try to fit more of it in though, and I'll keep your suggestion in mind!

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Sweet A.K- I figured that I shouldn't keep that cliffie there for too long ^_^. I think Dumbledore's fun to write because one minute he can be really serious and wise, the next he's just like a little kid, but still wise of course! Inuyasha rocks!

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Sailor Sol- your questions are answered in this chapter. In relation to the two Snapes, I can see how they might not get along because they are independent type of people, but someone had actually said that the two Snapes should get along if they like the way they are, and not get along if they may change in the future, if you get what I mean. I'm still thinking of how to do it!

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Silvercrystal77- you'll see what happened to Harry, probably a little anticlimatic, really. Can't have him in too much trouble at the beginning of the year!

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Rhinemjr- I can relate to the ff.net being stupid, I tried to update this yesterday but it wouldn't work! I can picture Snape as a lead singer too, what with all the greasy long locks of hair! Thanks for the review!

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Risi- yes, the new mystery definitely involves our favourite villian. I agree with the Ginny thing, she's not going to be getting places if she's always obsessed with Harry, and because the story is mostly going to be written from Harry's point of view, it's about time Harry can see Ginny as Ginny, not just Ron's-lil-sis-who-has-a-crush-on-him. I'm still not sure about whether or not the two Snapes will get along, as that's not the main thing in this story I haven't really thought about it that deeply. I think Snape will have the same past in this story, it demonstrates why Snape hates James and Sirius so much, and it also shows that boys will be boys and do stupid things. It also demonstrates Harry's maturity, the way he's older than his years due to his upbringing.

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HarryGryffinGirl- You just gave me an idea of doing some sidefic titled SLIMEBALLS VS. MARAUDERS! Although that fic might be a long time in coming, if ever… sigh, if only I wasn't studying… unless, of course, you'd like to write it for me? ^_^

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Supernova8610- thanks for the review, hope you like this chapter!

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SilverKnight7- here's the update! Thanks for the review!

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Kateri1- I like your idea of how the two Snape's should get along, I think I'll incorporate it, thanks!

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and

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Stephanie- thanks for reviewing chapter 12, your review didn't come up until after I updated the last chapter! I'm glad you like my fic, and am flattered by your compliments! Hope this chapter satisfies! ^_^

This chapter is dedicated to **Kateri1** and **HarryGryffinGirl**, I laughed when I read your reviews!

Disclaimer: You know the drill; none of this stuff belongs to me except, hopefully, the plot line. I can't guarantee that no other author has done this as I haven't read every single fanfic up!

~*~ 

"Look, he's stirring!" a familiar voice said.

"Let me see!" a voice, Harry recognised as Madam Pomfrey's approached him.

Yep, the sheets definitely were those of the Hospital Wing, and Harry was saddened that he knew where he was from the smell of his surroundings. Harry opened his eyes to see a concerned Madam Pomfrey leaning over him and Neville behind her, looking worriedly at Harry.

"You okay, Harry?" He asked, his voice trembling slightly, and Harry wondered if Neville had tears in his eyes, his eyes were a bit red, and his in his fist he clutched a handkerchief.

"Yeah Neville, why wouldn't I be?" Harry smiled kindly at him.

"Mr. Potter, how are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she ran her wand over him in complicated swirls, the tip of her wand glowing now and then, and nodding to herself occasionally.

"Uh, I feel like I've just woken up. How should I be feeling?" The confusion was evident in his voice.

"Do you feel any pain? Do you feel queasy or nauseous? Did you have any dreams?"

"No, I don't feel any of those and I didn't have any dreams," Harry looked at her, "what's going on? Shouldn't I be on the Hogwarts Express? How long was I asleep?"

"You were on the train, but you wouldn't wake up!" Neville piped up, looking scared, "we tried everything on you, but you just kept sleeping. Then Professor Sprout took you to the hospital wing and when we got to Hogwarts, I came to see how you were doing. I mean, Fred and George, and all the other fifth years wanted to come too, but Professor McGonagall only let one of us go. Anyway, Madam Pomfrey said that nothing seemed wrong with you, so we were just waiting until you woke up. I think the sorting would have started already," Neville added as an afterthought, with relation to Harry's question about the time.

"Everything is normal with you, Mr. Potter, are you sure that you don't feel anything unusual?" She gave Harry one of those 'I can see right through you' looks, which made Harry squirm a little.

Harry was still absorbing what Neville was saying, was he in that deep a sleep? He really didn't feel anything strange, although something tugged at the back of his mind, was it a vision he saw in his sleep but couldn't remember?

"I'm okay Madam Pomfrey. Can I go now? I don't want to miss the feast, and I'm sure Neville wouldn't leave until I do," Neville smiled, embarrassed, and looked at his feet.

After some thought, she obliged. "Okay, because I can't find anything wrong with you at the moment," Madam Pomfrey didn't sound okay about it at all, and sighed, "you are to come to me every evening this week for a check, just to make sure that nothing was wrong with you."

Harry was too eager to leave the hospital wing, starting the year in the hospital wing wasn't what Harry exactly had in mind, and he didn't want to give Malfoy any more ammunition in their constant verbal argument. He didn't want to miss the sorting _again_ and wondered if he could catch some of it at least.

"Are you really okay, Harry?" Neville asked once they were out of the hospital wing. They walked side by side along the corridor, responding to the portraits' greetings along the wall, and stepping to the side as Peeves zoomed through the corridor with a loud 'wee!', trailing something that was unpleasant in smell and looked green.

Harry turned to Neville, "yes, Neville, I feel _fine_, I wonder why I wouldn't wake up though?" He said, more to himself.

"Ron and Hermione wanted to stay with you too," Neville began to explain the absence of his two best friends, "but they decided that they should be at the feast, in case you slept too long, and because they are Prefects, they need to be there when the feast finishes."

"I understand," Harry sighed, then turned to Neville, "um, Neville? Do you realise that Trevor has changed colours?" Harry pointed out the toad on Neville's shoulder.

The toad croaked as Neville patted it's head and explained, "Fred and George made it eat something, and it changed colour. I told them to change it back, but they said it'd change back after some time. I hope Trevor doesn't feel the change though. Do you think that Trevor could feel that it's a different colour? I hope it doesn't hurt…"

Harry chuckled, "I'm sure that whatever Fred and George made it eat wasn't meant to hurt the recipient, Trevor is going to be fine." Neville smiled at the reassurance, and the two of them stopped in front of the door to the Great Hall. There was a round of applause, and Harry and Neville took that chance to hopefully go unnoticed into the Great Hall.

Most of the attention was on the person who had been sorted, so even though everyone saw that the doors opened and closed, and that two small figures were making their way to the Gryffindor table, their attention was quickly reverted back to the next person to be sorted. They reached some empty seats as "Williams, Ray" was sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!". Harry sat in a seat obviously saved for him between Ron and Hermione, smiling at them to reassure them, and Neville sat next to Seamus and Dean.

"And now, for the Hogwarts song!" Dumbledore beamed happily, the only one along the staff table who looked happy at the prospect of singing the song, "choose a favourite tune, and sing along!"

Harry didn't know many songs, so he just sort of said the words in some familiar tune, Ron sang to the Chudley Cannon's anthem, Hermione sang to the national anthem. Harry was greatly reminded of his first year as everyone finished and Fred and George were still singing to a slow funeral march.

As Dumbledore announced that the Feast shall begin, Ron turned to Harry, "where have you been? I've been _worried sick_…"

"They said you wouldn't wake up!" Hermione said, relieved that Harry had finally woken from his slumber.

"Harry, you're awake! What was wrong with you?" Dean asked from across the table.

"Did you really… _die_!?" Parvati asked, picking fretfully at a piece of carrot on her plate.

"Of course he didn't!" Hermione huffed at Parvati and Lavender, who had begun to whisper among themselves. She rolled her eyes at them, "they predicted that you died, and even used Trelawny's predictions in their argument. A load of rubbish!"

"We knew you weren't dead, Harry!" Fred piled food on his plate, and reached for some salt, "can't die before the Quidditch season!" He joked.

"You'd roll in your grave if we lost to Slytherin because you weren't there!" George added.

"Hiya Harry!" Dennis and Colin Creevey greeted loudly from down the table, "how are you feeling? We knew you wouldn't…"

"Madam Pomfrey doesn't know what was wrong with me, I think I was just really tired," Harry said loudly so that everyone could hear and stop asking questions, and so that the Creevey brothers wouldn't loudly announce that they knew he wouldn't die, "can someone pass me the gravy, please?" About six hands offered to pass the gravy to him, and Harry rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"It's good to see you're okay though," Ginny smiled, and Harry smiled back. Ginny then turned to Neville, "I was going to tell you before, but because of the situation, I forgot. Did you realise your toad is bright red and yellow…"

"Yeah, well, Fred and George…" Neville began, and the two of them got into a discussion about the twins' many pranks and how Ginny was never a victim of their pranks.

It felt good to be back to the first home he ever knew. The sky in the enchanted ceiling was clear and bright stars glittered down upon them. He looked at the bright hangings in the Great Hall, and the other marvelous decorations that adorned the walls. He looked over to the Hufflepuff table; they looked happy enough, although a little subdued. There were some who had obviously fake smiles on their faces as they talked with each other. Hannah Abbott looked on the verge of tears, obviously a fan of Cedric Diggory's. His eyes swiveled to the Ravenclaw table, passed Luna Lovegood, Ginny's friend, and landed on Cho Chang. At that moment, Cho looked up and met his eyes, giving him a small smile. Harry waved and blushed, looking away. Of course he still thought she was beautiful, but that small smile was not a happy one, and Harry knew the cause of the unhappiness; him.

"Did Madam Pomfrey really not know what was wrong?" Hermione, from Harry's right side, said, "I'm sure there's something…"

"In the library," Ron completed for her from Harry's left, and stuffed some steak in his mouth. Hermione blushed.

"Well, there _has_ to be a reason why he wouldn't wake up!" She said, cutting her piece of steak into smaller pieces, "and the library is quite extensive, if it wasn't to do with your health, it might have been a charm, or a potion… did your scar hurt?"

"No"

"Well then, we can cancel out You-Know-Who then…" Hermione said.

"Maybe he was just really tired," Ron said pointedly.

"But Dean said they tried everything…"

"When you're tired, you're tired, nothing's gonna stop you from sleeping…"

Harry ignored the rest of their squabble, and suddenly felt some eyes on him. He looked towards the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy glaring at him. George noticed and grinned.

"I don't think he had a really good train journey," George explained solemnly.

Harry was eager to hear what they did to him, "why not?"

"He didn't appreciate spending the whole ride in the toilets," Fred sighed ruefully, and everyone around him laughed.

"What's wrong with the toilets?" Lee feigned confusion, "you can relieve yourselves in times of need, you've got water if you're thirsty…"

"And he was even squashed in there with two gorillas!" Fred finished, and there were howls of laughter along the table.

"How did he get out then?" Harry wondered, wishing that Malfoy had been stuck in there the whole school year.

"He threatened some first year who was walking by. The poor dude, scared out of his wits!" Fred sighed, "but at least we know no one else cared enough to let him out!" Everyone laughed again. Malfoy blushed a little as he obviously realised what the Gryffindors were talking about, and he whispered to his stooges as they were obviously trying to think of a plan to get back at the pranksters, Harry didn't have much hope for them; they could never prank the professionals.

Harry looked along the front table. Dumbledore smiled gently and declined his head when Harry made eye contact with him, and Harry smiled back. Professor McGonagall was seated next to Dumbledore and looked like she was in a heated argument with Professor Vector, about what, he had not the slightest clue. Hagrid, at the end of the staff table, was looking straight at Harry when Harry looked at him, and waved with a look of relief on his face. Harry waved back happily, putting his hand on his chest where the gift from Hagrid lay under his shirt, and mouthed 'thank you'. Hagrid nodded back. He then shook both Ron and Hermione out of their argument.

"Who's that sitting next to Professor Flitwick?"

Both of them looked towards the professor Harry pointed out. He looked young and had short cut brown hair. He smiled in a friendly manner as he spoke animatedly to Professor Flitwick, hands making a lot of interesting looking gestures in his speech.

"I don't know, but he must be the new DADA teacher. Look at Snape," Ron said. Next On Dumbledore's other side sat Snape. Harry realised Snape was glaring daggers at the man, "he must be really disappointed he didn't get the position again."

"Look at the hostility though! Maybe Snape knows the new Professor?" Hermione wondered, and Harry had to agree; Snape had glared daggers at Lockhart who was incompetent, Remus who was a school rival, and Moody who was an Auror. Snape must really hate this person.

"If Snape hates him, he must be okay," Ron said thoughtfully.

"Not really, I mean, he hated Lockhart, and he was just a sad case," Harry said, and dug into the mashed potatoes. Ron snorted in agreement and leaned over the table to get the salt.

"He looks alright, at least," Ron thought aloud.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, "you can't judge a person by how they look, and he just looks ordinary to me.

"Well, that's what I mean. He doesn't have a turban, so no You-Know-Who hiding behind his head. He doesn't look like a model, so at least he's got some brain in there," Harry choked on his food, as Ron grinned and continued, "and he's got both eyes!"

Hermione frowned at Ron's line of reasoning, and was obviously thinking of a defense, "okay, the turban was a little suspicious, but Professor Lockhart was an okay teacher, and what was wrong with Professor Moody? Everyone thought he was good!"

"I can sense that in your eyes, Lockhart's looks has masked his true ability," Ron said in a dreamy voice, and Harry laughed outright, along with Dean and Seamus, who were obviously listening in. "And Professor Moody was a good teacher, apart from the fact that he was a Death Eater."

"That has nothing to do with whether a good professor has one or two eyes!" Hermione said, and returned to her food.

The desserts came and went, and the students silenced as Dumbledore stood up to make a speech.

"Now that we are all filled, I think you must now have the ability to register the start of term notices," there were chuckles among the students, "firstly, I'd like to introduce to you our newly appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Michael Plum!" There was a round of applause as the professor stood up with a huge lopsided grin and bowed to the students as though he had just finished performing in a play. The students laughed at his display of humour. Harry noticed that Snape was seething at this, while Dumbledore had a look of pure amusement on his face.

Dean yelled into his ear, "who got killed by a candle stick!" And Harry burst out laughing. Sure, he had only had one occasion to play Cluedo in primary school before Dudley broke the board and said Harry was losing so he broke it, but he still remembered some of the characters and ways of dying. Hermione rolled her eyes, and Ron looked at them in confusion.

"Professor Plum is very experienced in this field, and I believe that you will benefit a lot from him this year. For the first years, and to remind you older students who always seem to need the reminding," more chuckling, "the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. It _is_ called Forbidden for a reason. Several items have been added to the list of items that will be confiscated if it is in your possession," his eyes flew over to the Weasley twins, who grinned back at him, and Dumbledore smiled, "and the extensive list is on Professor Filch's door.

"Interhouse Quidditch resumes this year, try-outs shall begin in two weeks, and I wish all the members of the teams good luck!" The Quidditch teams cheered, and Fred and George had their fingers in their mouths, making very loud whistles. 

Dumbledore coughed to get some attention, but he looked serious now, "on a more serious note, you have all probably heard of the return of Voldemort," there were gasps throughout the Great Hall. Dumbledore nodded solemnly at the Hufflepuff table, and the Hufflepuff table looked almost eagerly at Dumbledore, "I would like a minutes silence to remember those that have been lost to him already."

Harry saw some people around him close their eyes, and Harry followed suit, not before seeing the Slytherin table rolling their eyes. The silence was almost deafening, and Harry wondered for the first time how many of the students at Hogwart's had lost people to Voldemort. The fact that he had lost his parents when he was a baby seemed to push thoughts of other people losing their family from his mind. Neville had lost his parents, and he had kept to his promise to Dumbledore by not sharing that information with his friends. Harry wondered if Neville would have been different, not so nervous and clumsy, if he had grown up with his parents.

Dumbledore clapped his hands, and everyone opened their eyes as he continued, "most of your parents think that Hogwarts is the safest place for you children. I assure you that I will do my best to insure your safety. Hogwarts is surrounded by magical shields, students are not to go wandering after curfew, Quidditch practices and any other outside activitiy shall be overlooked by a professor, and Hogsmead visits will be accompanied by members of the staff. And more importantly, in this dark time, we must all stick together. House rivalries, of course, exist, but we must realise that our rivals outside of Hogwarts are more dangerous than our rivals within these walls. Only by standing together can we defend ourselves from what is to come."

Silence reigned in the Great Hall, and Harry felt uncomfortable with all the eyes that flew over to him. He kept his eyes fixed firmly on the table in front of him.

Dumbledore continued, "Even though in the outside world there may be chaos, I hope that we can complete this school year as usual and that you all enjoy your studying. I think it is time that we rest for an early start tomorrow. If students could please follow their Prefects to their common room…"

The Hall grew louder as students got up to make their way to their common rooms.

"We'll talk to you in the common room. The password is 'baked potatoes'" Hermione said, as she stood up, "first years, I am your Prefect Hermione Granger, and this is Ronald Weasley!" She said loudly, "if you could follow us this way…"

"I made up that password!" Ron whispered excitedly to Harry as he stood up, and Harry grinned as he thought of Dumbledore and his use of candies as his passwords.

"Stop staring at me kiddo, I'm not going to eat you!" Ron said in a voice that suggested otherwise, to a scared-looking first year student. Harry laughed at Ron's treatment of the first years; at least he wasn't like Percy.

~*~

"They are such a tiring bunch, aren't they?" Ron asked Hermione as they sat down next to Harry. They had made sure all the first years were already in bed, and all the other Gryffindors were probably looking forward to an early start tomorrow, so the three of them were the only ones in the common room.

Harry smiled, "I'm sure we were like that when we were first years."

"We were not! We did not argue who got which bed, did we?"

"Uh, I think the beds were chosen for us, if I remember rightly," it was such a long time ago Harry had trouble remembering.

"Either way, we didn't want to go about swapping them or anything, did we?"

"No…"

"And what part of 'You can't be out of bed after curfew!' is difficult to understand?"

"Now, we can't be hypocrites!" Harry raised an eyebrow, and Ron sighed. "Anyway, I thought that Professor McGonagall made up the password?"

Ron grinned, "we saw her quite a lot over the holidays, she offered me the chance to make up the password. I wanted it to be something simple, easy to remember, so baked potatoes it was!"

"Wouldn't just 'potatoes' have been easier?" Hermione questioned.

"Well, people don't eat potatoes just raw, now do they?" Ron sat up and argued.

"So did you have a good holiday, Hermione?" Harry asked to stop the upcoming bickering. The trio were settled in front of the fire in the common room. Even though the weather was still warm, it was cool in the castle, and it was nice having the warmth of the fireplace upon them in the coolness.

"Yes, I certainly did! I spent the time in Bulgaria…"

"With Vicky…" Ron put in.

"Yes, with… no! With _Viktor_," she glared at Ron, and Harry stifled a laugh, "it's quite a fascinating place, with so much history! I met his family, and went to his house, such a large house it was! And then we did some sightseeing! We visited all of the old capital ruins like Pl…"

"You wouldn't believe where we were!" Ron interrupted, and Harry thought that he could use that same line when describing his holidays, "we were at the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters!" He ended a little more quietly. Although they were alone, he wanted to keep quiet, just in case.

"Ron, it's rude to interrupt when a person is speaking!" Hermione reprimanded.

"You were about to go on a lecture about Bulgaria!" Ron said loudly. Hermione just crossed her arms, and Harry wouldn't tell her, but he was glad Ron cut Hermione's lecture short.

"So what's this Order?" Harry asked curiously.

"It's this group of people who work against You-Know-Who. Both my parents are part of the order, and so are Bill and Charlie. They didn't want to leave us at home alone most of the time, so we stayed at their headquarters! And guess where the headquarters were?"

"Where?" Harry grinned at Ron's excitement in telling the story.

"It's Sir… I mean, Snuffle's house!" Ron corrected himself quickly as he looked around the empty common room. Ron lowered his voice, "he owns this big mansion, more like a haunted house. The place is so dark and creepy. There's this picture of his mum that's always screaming at us, she was quite the Muggle-hater when she was alive. Then there's this deranged house elf named Kreacher…"

"Which is probably acting deranged because it wants it's freedom," Hermione huffed.

"Still going on about SPEW? You'll just have to see it to believe it," Ron rolled his eyes, "it always mumbles to itself under it's breath, it's totally devoted to Sirius' mum. He'd say 'Kreacher is glad to be of help' and then under his breath he'd say 'Mistress will be most displeased that Mistress' treacherous son associates with all of these blood traitors..'" Harry laughed at Ron's mimicking of a house elf, and Hermione frowned at him, "anyway, we were, uh, _honoured_ to take on the job of cleaning out the house of dark objects, and Kreacher was always trying to stop us from doing so. Snuffle's had given it orders not to do us any harm though, and to not get into our way, so at least we're safe from it. You should see the place though, there's this place where there's a whole row of the past house-elves' heads, on pedestals. Kreacher thinks it'd be an honour to have it's head there too."

"Ew!" Harry said disgustedly, while Hermione looked a little pale. Sirius had never talked to him about his family, all Harry knew was that Sirius had a brother named Regalus. Harry now knew why; Sirius must have come from a dark family. "So who are the other members of this order?"

"Some ministry people, this clumsy girl called Nymphadora Tonks…" Harry smiled and raised an eyebrow at the name, "but she likes to be called Tonks. I would too if my name was Nymphadora. And there's this big black dude called Kingsley Shacklebolt," Ron continued softly, "Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, of course, Moody, the real one. Dung… I mean, Mundungus Fletcher, a dodgy guy who my mum really disapproves of, but we like him… Snuffles, of course, and Lupin. There's sure to be more members we don't know about. Oh, and this is probably very out of character for him, but Snape's a member!"

Harry had already guessed that Snape must have been part of the Order once Ron had started talking about it. Why else would they have two of them just to help with the 'Voldemort situation'? And Dumbledore really seemed to trust Snape, although Harry still wondered sometimes if that was misplaced trust. Snape was just so… _evil_, sometimes.

"What about the ministry? Do they believe that Voldemort's back?" Fudge's denial came back to Harry. Ron shivered at Harry's use of You-Know-Who's name.

Hermione grinned at this, "at first they didn't want to, even if I made Rita Skeeter write articles about You-Know-Who coming back, not including your part in it, of course," she added at Harry's incredulous look. "Most of the wizarding community is greatly influenced by our lovely journalist and the Daily Prophet, but the ministry still refused to admit his return, so there was some doubt among the community."

"Yeah, the ministry was under a lot of pressure too because while Fudge kept denying it, but the Prophet kept coming out with articles related to the situation and pointing out deaths that have already occurred. She even did some excellent finger-pointing at Fudge and his fear of losing his position, but he still kept the denial up," Ron said with a look akin to pride on his face, "but then, he couldn't deny it anymore."

"Why not?" Harry wondered at Fudge's sudden change of heart. Perhaps the pressure was getting too much for him?

"The Order staged a scene. Tonks, who can change her appearance at will, she's a metamorphmagus, appeared at the ministry as You-Know-Who, and pretended to torture Shacklebolt with the Cruciatus curse for information. Fudge just 'happened' to stumble upon this scene, and Tonks touched a timed Portkey and left the scene. Fudge had no choice but to believe what he saw, especially with Shacklebolt trembling at his feet in his supposed pain," Ron laughed, "it's kinda funny, really. Tonks came back, crying, because she was so scared she had to act as You-Know-Who, afraid that by doing so he could take over her mind. But she was also happy that they had convinced Fudge of his return. Shacklebolt had been a little pale at being the one who had to do the acting, because Tonks can be a little clumsy, he was afraid that Tonks might _accidently_ cast the spell on him. He came back, relieved as ever that the acting had gone well."

"How did she know what Voldemort looked like?" Ron looked at Harry with a frown for using the name again, but learnt long ago that telling him to stop saying it was like telling Percy to stop standing with a straight back.

"Snape told her," Ron said, and Harry nodded in understanding.

"That's deceit," Hermione said sadly, "but how else could they have convinced him of the truth? At least this act of deceit will enable the ministry to perform what is necessary to prepare themselves for You-Know-Who's inevitable attacks."

"And Fudge is in the process of getting rid of the Dementors," Ron added.

"Really?"

"Dementors are, obviously, Dark creatures, and would most likely stand by You-Know-Who in his rise," Hermione explained.

"So who would guard Azkaban when the Dementors are gone?" Harry was scared of the thought of Dementors roaming around the place, but reassured himself with the fact that he could conjure a Patronus. That didn't make Dementors any less scary.

"Several Aurors will be placed there. They can't put too many Aurors there though, as they need Aurors to help protect any place that You-Know-Who might attack," Hermione sighed.

The three of them sat in silence, all obviously dreading the dark times to come. Harry knew that Voldemort would want to kill him, but felt safe being under Dumbledore's care. But he wasn't safe last year, was he? At least he knew there were several more people on the light side now, a sure advantage in the fight against dark.

"Oh well, not only are the Order, the ministry, and the wizarding community working against him," Harry said, deciding to share his holidays with them now, "there are some people Voldemort would never expect who are working against him as well."

"Who's that?" Ron and Hermione both said at the same time, surprised out of their silence.

"Prongs, and another Snuffle's, Moony, and Snape…"

"What?" Hermione whispered.

"Harry mate, maybe you're still tired…" Ron began, looking at Harry as though he had suddenly turned into Kreacher.

"I'm not tired anymore. You see, you wouldn't believe where I was…"

~*~

AN: Look, no cliffie! Well, not really, but I thought it's as good a place to stop as any, and it's quite a quick update in comparison to, say, two months. I've only played Cluedo once, and Plum being killed by the candlestick is the only thing I can remember from it. Yes, no Umbridge! Plum will be an interesting character, you'll see!

As for Harry's trouble waking up and his dream, the dream will be explained later on, _much_ later on. But I really made up that scene to avoid writing my own sorting song, as I don't have much skill in the poetry department.

I don't have OoTP with me at the moment, so please correct me if Luna isn't in Ravenclaw and if I spelt Regalus wrong.

*so far, there are two votes for the Snapes to get along, and two votes for the Snapes not to get along. There have been excellent suggestions, and we won't see the Snapes together for a chapter or two anyway. Thanks for voting!

As always, please leave a review or write to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au, jaane!

~ultrasoul


	15. Chapter 15

AN: sorry for the wait, this is a kind of rough chapter. And to let you know ahead so you don't get your expectations up, chapters will be up very slow… although I'll try not to make you wait two months like before.

Also, the next few chapters are going to be slow, you have been forewarned!

Answers to some questions at the end, no individual thanks this time around due to time constraints, but thanks as always to all of those who took the time to review, greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, I'm just playing in her sandbox!

~*~

Ron and Hermione had taken Harry's tale well, and completely understood that the tale could not leave the trio. Being accustomed to keeping secrets, that was not a problem, although both of them really wished to visit the other world. Of course, the matter had to be discussed with Dumbledore. Harry was glad that Ron was not jealous of Harry for being able to travel to a different dimension, but was happy that Harry could see his family. Harry felt that this sudden instance of maturity stemmed from Harry's ordeal in the Triwizard Tournament, and was happy for it.

The weekend had been spent in high spirits as students celebrated the two last days they could slack off without worrying about homework, although Hermione spent a lot of her time over this years text books, while scolding Harry and Ron for not doing the same. Ron and Hermione attended their first Prefect meetings, which Harry was pleased to hear from Ron that it was boring, although they could to drink some butterbeer and eat candies.

After getting his brief check-ups with Madam Pomfrey, Harry spent the night times talking with his other-dimension mother and younger sister. Magnolia had been eager to tell Harry about what mischief she got up to while oHarry was back at Hogwarts, and Lily had happily discussed anything and everything with Harry. Harry found that Lily could really make him talk.

Monday morning proved to be a bright morning. Harry was the first to wake, and quickly showered and got dressed. He was trying to brush his unkempt hair down while walking out of the bathroom.

"Morning Harry!" Dean said with a stretch.

"Oh, morning Dean," Harry smiled as Dean went over to shake Seamus awake. Neville jumped up as his toad croaked in his face, a useful alternative for an alarm clock, Harry thought.

"Wake up Ron! You'll miss breakfast!"

Harry was certain the thought of impending classes without breakfast would wake up his sleepy friend. And surely enough, Ron unwillingly opened his eyes and yawned.

"Geez, mate. What time is it?" Ron couldn't help yawning again. He closed his eyes again then opened one eye briefly to see the sunny day outside, and groaned.

"Five minutes until breakfast, hurry up!" Harry was still getting dressed. Although he was tired, ten years of waking up early to cook breakfast was ingrained in his body clock, and he had no problem waking up early.

Giving the outside sunny day a look of disgust, Ron sat up and made his way to the bathroom, red hair sticking up everywhere and pajama top twisted around his body.

Harry went down to the common room and saw the twins looking at the notice board, whispering to each other.

"Anything important?" he asked as he walked up to them.

"Morning Harry!" They both greeted in unison.

"Upon close observation of the notice board," George began.

"We see a message that is of utmost importance," Fred continued.

"It concerns you too, my friend," George stepped aside for Harry to have a look.

__

To members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team,

There will be a meeting tonight in your common room at 8:00pm to decide who the Captain of the team will be. At the meeting the try-outs will also be discussed. Please let all your teammates know.

Minnerva McGonagall

Fred sighed, "it'll be such a hard decision to make."

"All our members are too good, how do we decide?" George agreed with an exaggerated disturbed sigh.

"Uh, guys? I don't think being merely _good _is the deciding factor. You need the responsibility, the drive…" Harry began.

"Spoken like a true captain!" Fred exclaimed, and Harry blushed, "however, it is much easier to decide after we have been revitalised by our morning meal," Fred said, and grinned, "see you, Harry!"

Waving his goodbyes, Harry quickly scanned the rest of the board to see if there was anything else important. Neville had lost his Remembrall, already, again. A sixth year was offering help to students who needed counseling. Fred and George had tacked on an advertisement for their Weasley Wizarding Wheeze® products, which Harry was sure Hermione would take off once she saw.

"Harry, let's go!" Ron appeared from the dorm, and they headed towards the exit.

"Anything interesting?" Ron asked as he stepped out of the portrait hole first.

"Well, we need to decide who should be the Captain for the Quidditch team," Harry said, "I think I'll be going for one of the girls, probably Angelina. I really can't imagine either of your brothers taking on such a role, no offence or anything. Although it may be amusing."

"Most of you are good though, it'll be difficult to choose who should be the Captain," Ron said.

Harry rolled his eyes, "that's what your brothers said too, although I don't think I can be the Captain. I don't imagine myself getting everyone up at ungodly hours, or yelling at the others if they don't fly well or were doing something wrong," Harry smiled, "we'll also discuss try-outs for the Keeper position. Are you interested?"

Ron beamed, "of course I am!" but then he frowned, "but I've never had much practice in that position."

"That's okay!" Harry laughed, "I never had much practice in the Seeker position either before I was chosen to go on the team."

"But you're a natural!" Ron exclaimed as they reached the doors to the Great Hall.

"And if you're not, you can be trained to become a good Keeper. Practice makes perfect," Harry opened the doors and the two of them made their way to the Gryffindor table.

As they reached their normal seats, Hermione scowled at them.

"Ron, you're late!" She scolded.

"Yeah, well…"

"You're not setting a very good example for the first years!"

Ron rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Hermione, I don't think it'll affect our studies if we're late for breakfast. Besides, we had a late night last night, what with all patrolling the corridors during the night."

Hermione sighed. It seemed as though Prefect duties were already taking their toll on Ron, "okay, you have a point. Here are some timetables to give out."

Ron grumbled that breakfast should come before timetables, but took the pile out of Hermione's hand anyway. He went up and down the Gryffindor table to hand out the timetables.

When Harry got his, he groaned. Just as luck would have it, Potions was first, with the Slytherins. And to add to his luck, double Potions was last on Friday, just the perfect start to the weekend. Ron sat down gratefully next to Harry after he had handed out the last timetable, and looked at his own timetable. He groaned even more passionately than Harry had.

"Potions, first thing! What have I done to deserve this? And with the Slytherins!" Ron complained, stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth to make him feel better.

"Then charms, then Care of Magical Creatures…" Harry looked at the day's schedule, while reaching for some more eggs. He loved Hagrid, he was a great friend, but was dreading what dangerous creatures they were going to handle the coming school year.

"We don't have DADA until tomorrow, I was looking forward to seeing what the new Professor was like," Ron said.

"Weren't we all?" Harry said, "Dumbledore seems to like him, Snape seems to hate him, so he can't be too bad."

"Look, double Arithmancy tomorrow morning! I read so much about the stuff we're doing this year, it'll be so exciting!" Hermione exclaimed from across from Harry and Ron, as the boys both rolled their eyes. Ginny, who was sitting next to Hermione, laughed at their expressions.

"Yeah, double Divination tomorrow morning, lots of fun," Harry sighed.

"I understand, I'm doing Divination as well. I think the subject itself is quite intriguing, but it's just that Professor Trelawny is not a very good Professor," Ginny said. She reached for her pumpkin juice, looking warily at the plate of toasts in front of Neville. Her eyes then flew to Fred and George, who were sitting further down the table. Harry followed her eyes, and then looked anxiously at Neville, feeling sorry for whatever was about to behold him.

The owl post came then; hundreds of owls flying in the air, dropping letters and parcels everywhere. Harry looked at the sky, wondering if he would get any mail that day. Some Hufflepuffs were squealing at some parcel they got, there were some first years looking horrified at the mass of owls descending upon them, and Harry couldn't help noticing that Malfoy got a big parcel, most probably a gift from his parents. Hedwig glided in smoothly and landed on the edge of the desk with a letter. Harry took it from her excitedly, feeding her the rest of the toast he was eating, and opened the letter.

__

Hi Snitch!

All goes well with us, regardless of having to see Greaseball and Slimeball regularly. 

We hear that you had some problems yesterday. Let us know if there's anything wrong.

Stay out of trouble! Did we just write that? The writing suddenly changed.**_ No, that's Prongs. Padfoot tells you to give Snape hell!_**

Prongs & Padfoot

Harry could only assume that Greaseball and Slimeball were Snape and oSnape, and wondered which was which; it didn't matter anyway, they were both as awful as the other. He grinned to himself. He was getting mail! He was so happy! Harry heard Neville hiccuping, and realised that that was what Fred and George had done to the toast. 

Ron quickly scanned the letter he received from his parents after Pig had landed in Hermione's pumpkin juice in his excitement, and continued, "'Not a very good Professor' is an understatement. She is a shocking Professor! Did you hear about that famous seer?" Ron asked.

"Oh yes, I read about that in the Daily Prophet I got delivered to my home during the holidays. Apparently, she was a descendant of a famous seer," Hermione said.

"I think I saw it briefly…" Harry thought back to that day so long ago when he woke up in the hospital wing and there was a copy of the Daily Prophet lying on his bedside table. There were some loud gasps, and Harry looked down the table to see Fred and George, both with looks of uncharacteristic surprise on their faces. They were staring at a letter, and next to Hermione, Harry heard Ginny giggle. So did Ron and Hermione, who both looked at her in awe.

"Anyway, not only do people think she was murdered, but a lot of things were missing from her place," Hermione said, turning back to their conversation, while Ron laughed outright at what Ginny had done to Fred and George.

"What makes people _think_ that she was murdered?" Harry said confused.

"Well, I think it looked like suicide," Hermione explained, "but the murder could have been set up that way to try to confuse us. The case is quite confusing, and we aren't given all of the details."

"Did she have a lot of precious things?" Harry asked.

"Did they take her crystal ball and her tea set?" Ron put in, after calming himself down. Ginny had her face down on her arms to wipe her tears, and Harry saw Fred and George looking and pointing at her with frowns on their faces.

"I think she had a lot of magical items, passed down from generation to generation. Half her shelves were empty when they got there," Hermione picked up a piece of fruit and began to peel it.

"_Why_ do people think she was murdered?" The case was really intriguing Harry. Did she make an important prophecy?

Hermione shrugged, "they could only make guesses as to why she was murdered. I think she knew she was going to die…"

"Why?"

"From what the paper says, there was no sign of a struggle. Cassandra had even left a will and transferred all the money in her Gringotts account to her relatives."

"Wouldn't that look more like suicide than murder then?" Harry said.

Hermione shrugged, "according to her friends and relatives, she never had any suicidal tendencies, and that's what made people think she could have been murdered."

"Why wouldn't she do something to avoid it then?" Ron asked.

"Ron, you're the one who's doing Divination, you should know this!" Hermione exclaimed, "but I'm not surprised you don't. You see, I read this in 'Understanding the Future' when I was still planning to do Divination…"

"Just get on with it!" Ron was getting impatient.

Hermione frowned, "the book said that with some prophecies, you see outcomes that no matter what you do you can't avoid. With some other prophecies, you see possible outcomes that depends on what you do in between. It depends on how advanced the seer is to determine which sort of prophecy they are observing."

Harry nodded, "that makes sense. If she saw her death, she probably realised that doing something was just like doing nothing, she was going to die anyway." Harry felt sorry for the lady that he never met; to have to see your own death before experiencing it!

"So the prophecy that Trelawny made in my third year would be fitted into the first category," Harry pondered aloud, "I mean, he's a rat, it's so easy for him to get away…" he picked at the piece of bacon on his plate.

"Cheer up mate," Ron said sadly, patting Harry on the back, "we'll get him one day!"

Harry smiled at his best friend, "yeah, and justice will be served, and Snuffles will be free…"

~*~

"I heard you almost died the other night, Potter," Malfoy drawled. The Slytherin group were already waiting outside the classroom door. Crabbe and Goyle nodded along to whatever Malfoy said, and Pansy Parkinson smiled maliciously at them.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Malfoy," Harry sighed, still disturbed himself at what happened on the Hogwarts Express. Perhaps he would ask Dumbledore, who seemed to know _almost_ everything.

Malfoy sneered, "it's a pity you didn't die. At least then you might have spared a few more lives…"

Before Ron could retort, Snape suddenly appeared behind the Gryffindor trio, making them jump.

"Students, inside!" Neville cried out in surprise, and Malfoy chuckled.

Everyone shuffled inside, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting at the back behind Neville, Dean, and Seamus. Parvati and Lavender was in front of Neville, Dean and Seamus. All the Slytherin's seated themselves near the front.

Snape turned from the blackboard.

"This will be my last year teaching most of you," he began in his silky voice, and he looked directly at Neville, who gulped. "Only those of you who achieve high passes on your OWLS can be accepted into my NEWTS class…"

Snape rounded on Harry, and Harry was no longer surprised at this. He was only worried about what trivial question he would be asked.

"Mr. Potter, what mark is required for the continuation of Potions?" Snape asked.

In all honesty, Harry had no idea. He had never bothered himself with getting high marks in order to continue with a subject, as he had never known what he wanted to do, "Um, a pass?" Harry ventured a guess.

"Are you answering my question with a question?" Snape asked. Malfoy and his bunch were looking at Harry with a look of glee, and Harry frowned at this.

He didn't want to play these games with Snape, "Yes, because I am not sure of the answer to your question," Harry said. Seamus gave him a thumbs up, and Harry smiled slightly at this.

Snape gave him a hard look, "Potter, your special entrance the other day may have you thinking you can answer my question with a question. I will only accept the right answer, not a question. The scoring system for your OWLS differ to that used in the usual class environment, and the level required if you wish to further your studies in potions is an O," Harry had no idea what the scoring system was for OWLS, "five points from Gryffindor."

Again, Harry was not surprised at this. But he was still seething inside. Malfoy was looking at Harry with triumph, as Harry took care to take deep breaths.

"Our first few weeks will comprise of studying quick potions to look at the direct affect of ingredients on the desired outcomes. We have done this for the past four years, so it should not be too difficult for most of you. We will then look at more complex and useful potions such as healing potions. After the Christmas season, we will be looking at the more difficult potions which may take several lessons to complete. Two weeks before your OWLS we will simply be doing revision for your OWLS…" at the mention of OWLS, Hermione looked positively delighted. Harry knew she would be revising before the revision time anyway.

"Today we will be looking at a _simple_," he stressed the word, again looking at Neville, "healing balm, capable of healing bruises and some shallow cuts." He turned around with a billowing of cloak, and began to write the ingredients on the board. The students all shuffled to get their notebooks out and copy the notes.

"How high is O?" Harry asked Hermione quietly, obviously confused.

"I think that O is the highest, and then E, but I'm not quite sure myself. O is for Outstanding, E is for Exceeds Expectations."

"Oh," Harry then turned to Ron, "what do you want to do in the future?" he whispered to Ron.

"I don't know," Ron whispered back, "but whatever it is hopefully doesn't require the completion of Potions at NEWT level."

"I can relate to that," Harry agreed.

There were a lot of ingredients in the potion, but the process of making this potion itself was quick as there wasn't a lot of boiling and waiting required, but the preparation would take some time.

"As there are a lot of ingredients to prepare, I will allow you to work in groups of two or three…" Snape began, and this suited Harry fine, "and I shall be choosing your groups for you." Harry groaned.

As luck would have it, Harry ended up with Crabbe and Goyle; it looked like Harry would be practically doing this by himself. Snape was mixing up Slytherins and Gryffindors, why though Harry didn't know. Ron was with Pansy Parkinson and Lavender, Hermione had Neville and Malfoy. Harry couldn't decide whether or not he was luckier than Hermione.

Perhaps it was a good thing that Neville was stuck with Hermione and Malfoy. Harry begrudgingly admitted to himself that Malfoy wasn't bad at potions, although not as good as Snape says all of the time, and at least having both Hermione and Malfoy, Neville could avoid blowing anything up.

Being stuck with Crabbe and Goyle, two gorillas in human clothing, Harry had to do most of the work himself. There was definitely no sense of group work as Harry cut all of the ingredients and mixed them together. And he was annoyed with Snape always swooping down on him and telling him to work faster.

"You guys, we could get this done quicker if you helped," Harry finally said to them.

"Why should we help?" Crabbe asked, obviously confused at the fact he was communicating with Harry Potter himself without Malfoy's guidance.

"You do want to pass, don't you?"

The two big boys nodded their heads vigorously.

Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other, confused, then back at Harry, "what can we do?"

"You can mix the blue solution in the big tube with the white powder in the beaker," Harry said to Crabbe, pointing to said tube and beaker, and he rounded on Goyle, "while _you_ can help cut up some of these roots." And Harry was more than surprised to see them comply. Maybe it wasn't so bad working with them after all.

Next to him, Harry heard Ron, Lavender, and Pansy arguing.

"_You_ cut those roots up! I've been crushing these seeds up all this time…" Lavender said to Pansy.

"Weasley, you do it! I'm mixing these ingredients!" Pansy hissed, picking up some beakers and pouring one in the other.

"Parkinson, those don't go together…" Ron began, and there was a small explosion. Snape advanced on their group mercilessly.

"Longbottom, you're doing it wrong!" Harry heard Malfoy hiss menacingly to Neville.

"But it says to cut…" Neville began.

"That's okay, Neville. That only meant to cut it into slightly smaller pieces, if you cut it too small it'll react much quicker and we don't want that. We then mix it with some of this solution to precipitate some of the unwanted elements that can't be washed off of it…" Hermione began her potions lecture.

All in all, it was a long lesson for both Slytherins and Gryffindors.

~*~

The rest of the day passed by slowly, with each teacher lecturing them about how important their OWLS were and how it was going to affect their futures.

In the single lesson, Hagrid had gone over all of the previous years' work as a review. He even showed them a few full-grown Blast-Ended-Skrewts, which everyone stood back from, and Flobberworms. A very fun lesson indeed, and Harry did not even get a chance to ask Hagrid about what he was doing over the holidays.

All the teachers made it a point to emphasise the fact that a lot will be asked in the OWLS, and to start them on the right track, gave them a lot of homework.

8:00pm couldn't come any sooner for Harry as he quickly entered the common room after being at the Hospital Wing getting his daily check-up. He waited in front of the fireplace with the rest of the Quidditch team in the common room. Every time someone came through the Portrait Hole, the whole team turned as one to see if it was McGonagall. This scared some of the first years making their way into the common room, and Fred and George was quite enjoying it.

Finally, McGonagall came at five minutes past.

"I apologise for my lateness," she said when she saw the looks on their faces, "now, the meeting tonight is to determine who will be the captain. The process is simple; I want you all to close your eyes, and raise your hand when I call out the name of the person you think should be captain. You may only vote once."

The whole team closed their eyes, and the other Gryffindors in the common room quieted down to look onto the process.

"Katie Bell… Angelina Johnson…" Harry put his hand up for Angelina. He tried to strain to hear if anyone else was putting their hand up, but with the mutterings around the common room he couldn't. "Harry Potter…" he was sure he heard some gasping among the other students.

"Alicia Spinnet… Fred Weasley…" there was some giggling, and McGonagall sounded exasperated as she said, "And George Weasley."

"You may now open your eyes," everyone opened their eyes, looking at one another happily, and then looking at McGonagall expectantly.

"And your new captain is…" the twins began to do a drum-roll on the floor with their feet, "Harry Potter!"

There were cheers, and his teammates patted him on the back. Harry blushed furiously, "but…"

"No buts, mister!" Fred said, "we knew it'd be you! You're responsible, you're good, you're serious about your Quidditch, you're perfect!"

"Besides," Alicia said, "most of us are gone next year…"

"Which means you'll be the only one on the team with the most experience," Angelina finished. Harry had to agree with this.

"Congratulations, Mr. Potter. I also agree that you are worthy of this position. Try-outs will be in two weeks, you are to put a notice on the board, and you may discuss among yourselves how the try-outs will be run," McGonagall smiled at him, "I expect another win this year, students. Good luck." She made her way out of the common room. The other students went back to their game-playing or talking, while the Quidditch Team huddled around the fireplace.

"So Captain, how do we decide who our next Keeper should be?" George asked.

Harry thought about it for a moment, and it didn't take a lot of thinking at all, "well, we'll see who can save the most goals out of, say, ten shots. The person with the best score and/or style gets the position."

"Well thought!" Fred exclaimed.

"And we also need reserves for all the positions. That might be a little harder. The reserve Seeker can be whoever catches the Snitch fastest," Harry said.

"Reserve Chasers can be whoever makes the most goals against our chosen Keeper," Alicia said.

"But they must have good team-work too. Maybe we can try-out one Chaser at a time with two of us, or have the Chasers choose their own groups of friends to Chase with," Angelina said.

"That goes with Beaters as well," George agreed, "a lot of team-work is required. Maybe the try-outters can choose their partners and groups among themselves, then we try them out."

Harry nodded, "that sounds good. Maybe we can ask Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw if they'd like to help play against our team with our reserves. As for practice, well, I'm no Oliver, so for now I'll try to organise practices weekly, and then we'll work up to several practices a week, nothing too early in the morning though, hopefully. But if that's the only time available, I apologise beforehand."

"Spoken like a true captain!" The twins both cried in delight, and Harry rolled his eyes.

"I'll put a notice on the board regarding try-outs and practice," Harry concluded. The meeting was over, and Fred and George hurried out of the Portrait Hole. At this time of the night, Harry could only assume they were going to do some rule-breaking. Angelina and Katie went to play some Wizards Chess, while Alicia got some books out to study. Harry stayed where he was in front of the comfortable fire. Ron and Hermione went over and sat with him.

"Well done Harry!" Hermione said, putting her books down carefully, before enveloping him in a hug. She let go with a huge smile, and then picked up her books again, turning to the page she had been reading.

"Yeah, mate, congratulations!" Ron agreed, patting him enthusiastically on the shoulder.

"Thanks, you guys. I didn't really expect it…" Harry grinned.

"I'm surprised you didn't, the whole team voted for you!" Ron exclaimed.

"They did?" Harry was surprised. Harry never really thought about being the team captain.

"Yeah, even though Fred and George voted for themselves as well," Ron grinned.

"I have a feeling they discussed it beforehand," Hermione said, not looking up from her book, "that's what's good about this team; there's a sense of unity. Besides, what they said made sense, about you being the only one left of the original team next year."

"They sure surprised me," Harry said, sinking further into the couch, "I never thought about being Captain, but now that I am, I'm starting to really feel like I can fit into that role."

"I know," Ron said, "we saw you, starting to make all the decisions for the team…"

"Well, I think it'll be a good year. We are going to win!"

~*~

Meanwhile…

"You have nothing to complain about, that boy is nothing compared to what I have to face in my world!"

"Nothing to complain about!? I am sure you noticed his arrogance, he thinks himself above the rest of the student body and expects special treatment for it…"

"At least he doesn't throw Dung Bombs at you during class…"

"He would throw it in another students' cauldron instead to make himself look good…"

"And you don't have to watch your back all of the time…"

"Walking around with a big head, trying to get out of deserved punishments…"

A door slammed open, and two figures stood silhouetted against the bright corridor.

"What were you saying, Slimeballs?" Two angry voices said.

Terror ensued.

~*~

AN: Look, no cliffie, sorta. I'm sure you figured out what that last bit was all about anyway.

I never knew Cluedo was called anything else, that's what they call it here in Aus! If anyone knows if that's what they call it in English, please let me know!

Plum is gonna be an interesting character, you'll just have to wait to see what he's all about! Don't wanna spoil it for you now, do I?

I'm sure there were other questions, but I don't have them at my disposal at the moment, sorry!

I thought I should mention what I think of the future and the reading of it; from the book, the prophecies seem to be unavoidable. There was this other book I read before (sorry, can't recall it, I think it was a children's fantasy with a yellow cover, doesn't help much, does it?) where this wizard owned a book that contained a lot of possible outcomes, depending on what the main character chose to do. So I just thought I'd use that idea too, not to mention I'm not to fond of the idea of the fates controlling us and not the other way around.

My trusty calendar tells me that when Harry was in fifth year, 2nd September fell on a Friday, so correct me if I'm wrong.

I understand totally how frustrating it is to have a bad subject on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Not that physics was that bad a subject, but it just got so boring sometimes, so it's never a good start or end to the week. I thought I'd give Harry a hard time ^_^.

As always, if you have any criticisms, comments, or suggestions, please leave them in a review or email them to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au, until then!

~ultrasoul


	16. Chapter 16

AN: Hi peoples!  Due to my lack of study since the beginning of the year, my work has piled up to an extraordinary amount, so there will be no more updates until exams are finished.  DO NOT WORRY, THIS FIC WILL NOT BE ABANDONED, yet… although next wait will have to be about 3 months, sorry!

No time for individual thanks, but thank you for reviews all the same, they make my day!  Oh, and someone reviewed in French, I had to look up the words in a dictionary.  I do not understand any French, so if you wish to review in a language other than English, make it Japanese, or Vietnamese (languages I have studied in school, wish I still had time to study them…).  Thank you for the review anyway, I eventually figured out what it meant ^_^.

A kind reviewer has pointed me to a website about Cluedo, and apparently Cluedo is called Cluedo everywhere except in America, where they call it Clue, or Japan and China, where they call it some Japanese name and Chinese name.

Someone asked about Plum's identity, I will not say it here, but was it _that_ obvious?  All will be revealed in next coupla chappies!

Sorry if I missed any specific questions, I'll try to get to them later!

Disclaimer:  Harry Potter and co. belong to JKR, or else I wouldn't have to be posting fics here, would I?

~*~

"Kill him, KILL HIM!!!"

The woman's voice was high and annoying, one of those screechy types of voices you just want to silence.  Sirius tried to curse the portrait while dodging Snape's curse.  The duel was intense: both Sirius' and Snapes' were fast, with many tricks up their sleeves.

A wooden chair flew into oSirius, who was knocked out for several seconds before transfiguring the chair into a metal one and threw it back.

"I'll teach you to talk about Harry like that!"  oSirius roared as the chair exploded in the air.  He then threw a nasty hex at Snape, who deflected it just in time.

"I was merely speaking the truth, you who do not accept the truth…" a bucket of mud fell on oSnape, who growled in a Sirius-like manner while cleaning the mud off himself.  As soon as his vision was cleared of mud, a creamed cake splattered in his face.

Snape came to the rescue, throwing painful hexes and transfiguring the wooden furniture into sharp objects before making them fly towards Sirius.

"KILL HIM!!!"  Mrs. Black shrieked again, to Sirius' annoyance.

A knife stopped right in front of Sirius' face, and a booming voice said.

"Children, I think it is time your wands are confiscated while you think about the consequences of your actions," Dumbledore shook his head, his silver beard swaying back and forth, while he was obviously trying not to smile.  He held up his hand and four wands flew towards him.  Lupin was standing behind Dumbledore, shaking his head as well.

"There are important things to plan, so if we may begin our meeting…" 

"Oh, how I wishes Dark Greasy Man would hex my traitorous master…" Kreacher mumbled in the background.  Sirius kicked him out.

~*~

Harry had spent all of the night before beginning his set essays, while Ron and Hermione had gone on their Prefect rounds.  Of course, if Ron and Hermione had been there he would not have started doing his homework but rather have played some Exploding Snap or Wizarding Chess with Ron, to Hermione's usual disapproval, but he had become so bored he decided he should do something useful.

Before he went to bed he wrote a letter to James and Sirius to tell them he had become the Quidditch Captain, and would have talked to his mum if it had not been so late in the night.

The morning brought a single lesson in Herbology and a double in Divination.  The Gryffindors had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.  Professor Sprout went through the standard lecture on how important their OWLS were and then assigned an essay for them.

Trelawny was the first professor to not tell them how important their OWLS were.  Rather, she said that they could _see_ their success or failure, and studying or not won't change that result, although she assigned homework anyway.  Apparently, Harry would be dying before the OWLS anyway, but he still had to do any set homework.  The rest of the lesson was spent flipping coins ("is that Muggle_ money_?"  "Yes Seamus," Harry laughed).  While Parvati and Lavender 'oohed' and 'aahed' at their futures, Harry and Ron spent the time playing 'Heads and Tails'.  By the end of the lesson, Harry was losing.

Lunch was a nice relief from the stuffed towers of Divination, and got them prepared for the 'sleeping' lesson ahead.

Professor Binns mentioned how important the OWLS were, before droning on about Magical Settlements in the 15th Century and the various problems associated with magic at that time.  Parvati and Lavender had their little pink mirrors out, doing their hair and makeup and whatever else it was that girls did when they had their mirrors out.  Dean was scribbling furiously in his notebook, and upon looking over his shoulder, Harry noticed, slightly relieved, that Dean was not scribbling down notes but was working on another artistic construction.  Neville was looking at the board with his eyes half closed, and Harry knew that if a hand was waved in front of Neville's face, Neville would not have moved an inch.  Seamus was a little less discrete about his tiredness and had his head resting on his forearms, snoring softly.  Ron was doing likewise, although his notebook was out and he still had his quill in his hand after making an effort.  Even Hermione was struggling to stay awake as she took down notes from Professor Binns' lecture.

Harry heeded the advice that Griff gave him regarding having enough time to finish homework, play Quidditch, and prank people; he took out one of the essays he began the night before and worked on it during the lesson.  After finishing off the essay, he realised the wisdom in Griff's advice; the lesson was quiet, and he would not be disturbed or distracted, which meant he could get quite a bit of work done if he put his head to it.  He had told Ron to do the same, but Ron had a late night the night before so it was difficult for him to keep up.

After History of Magic, the Gryffindors were wide awake, thanks to Peeve's water bombs, and standing excitedly outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

"I can't wait to see what he's like!"  Seamus exclaimed excitedly.

"Ginny said he's pretty good, she had him yesterday," Ron put in.

"He's not bad looking either!"  Harry heard Lavender whisper to Parvati, and they both giggled.

"I'm happy as long as he's not another Lockhart," Harry murmured, "I'd actually like to _learn_ something."  Hermione heard and frowned, but refrained from saying anything.  What Harry said was true though, they needed to learn to defend themselves in the dark times to come.

The door opened with a swish and there stood Professor Plum in clean black robes with a genuine-looking smile on his face.

"Come in!  Come in!"  He stepped aside and the students made their way in.  The classroom was the same as it was when the fake Moody was teaching, not a dark creature in sight as it was when Lupin was teaching, and no pictures of himself, to Harry's relief.

The professor closed the door with a 'click' when they were all in and made his way to the front of the classroom.  He quickly did the roll call, and to Harry's relief he didn't look up at Harry's name, and then looked up at the class with a look akin to that of a child receiving a birthday present.

"I am told that you have learnt about simple defense mechanisms, dark creatures, and the Unforgivables," Professor Plum began, while some of the students nodded back, "this year we shall be undergoing an intense course in both fitness and defensive spells.

"You are probably curious as to the reason behind the fitness?  In a duel, you will need to be able to dodge spells that you can't block, such as the Unforgivables.  If you lose your wand, and your opponent still has theirs, the only thing that you can really do is run, which would be a little difficult if you have not run in a very long time.  Imagine your lovely caretaker running…"  the students burst out laughing, "he was not too pleased last night when I accidentally walked into that cat of his."  Harry had to disagree with the part about Filch not being a good runner; otherwise, how could Filch always make it to the scene of crime in record time?

"Anyway, in our double lessons we shall begin with a quick stretch and a jog around a part of the Hogwarts grounds, so I'd like students to meet me in front of the Entrance Hall for our lessons.  If you get there early, I want you to begin stretches.  You will not be changing into any sports gear, in a duel your opponent will not expect you to turn up in your tracksuits," Professor Plum gave the class a lopsided smile, and everyone chuckled, "and so that you don't think I'm just slacking off, I will be jogging with you.  Although I might bring along a broom if I've had a lot of defense lessons that day.  While we cool down after our run we shall review the defense spells we already know and new spells we will be learning, and upon returning to the classroom we will try out the new spells.  This is more of a practical class, so you will make quick notes about what spells we are studying and their affects, and then we'll try it out.  Understood?"

Everyone nodded, but the professor shook his head, "tut, tut.  As a class, we must work together, we must be more vocal!  Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"  the class said loudly, and the professor looked upon them with a look of pride.

"In our single lessons we will simply look at the spells we've studied, or you may take on a quick obstacle course.  Any questions?"  Everyone seemed to eager to begin the lesson to ask questions.  "Students, on your feet!"  He suddenly yelled, and everyone stood up quickly.

"Leave your cloaks here, I shall lock up the room.  Out to the Entrance Hall!"  Everyone quickly shuffled outside and made their way to the Entrance Hall.  They passed McGonagall, who looked at them with a smile and waved at Professor Plum.

"Taking your students out on an afternoon stroll?"  Snape stepped out from a side corridor, he was glaring at Plum with a look of loathing comparable to the look Snape gave Harry in classes.

"I think students need the fresh air to be able to think clearer," Plum said, "it's so hard when all they breathe is musty castle air, it must be hard to think down in your dungeons."

Harry and Ron looked at Professor Plum, awed at his obvious fearlessness of Snape, and hid their smiles behind their hands.

"You obviously do not note that the dungeons are well ventilated so that students do not die breathing in the fumes," Snape said through gritted teeth, he glided away down the way they came from, Neville jumping out of his way with a squeak.  Harry noticed that Snape walked with a stiff back, and wondered if he was in pain.

"Forwards, students!"  Plum said when Snape was out of sight.

"Okay, pop quiz, are vampires really scared of garlic?"  Professor Plum asked, while walking behind the whole group.

Hermione put her hand up, and the Professor laughed, "no need to put your hand up, Miss Granger!  As we are a small group, it won't be too noisy if we all just express our opinions out loud."

"No," Seamus said, "they are only afraid of sunlight."

"They are not afraid of the sunlight," Plum corrected, "they are merely weaker, and the weaker vampires die in the sunlight."

"But don't vampires have a keen sense of smell?  That's why people think they don't like garlic," Dean added.

"They do have a keen sense of smell," Professor Plum said, "but they are not afraid of garlic, neither are they afraid of crucifixes, it's all a myth.

"Now, what spells are unblockable?"

"The Unforgivables!"  Everyone chorused.

"But you can block the Imperius Curse," Harry put in.

"Correct, five points to Gryffindor!  This is so much fun, giving people points!"  Plum said with glee, and the students laughed.

When they were outside, Plum showed them some simple warm-up and stretching, working the whole body, and then they began their jog around the castle.  

As the jog went on, Plum jogged beside them, listing the spells they would be studying in the lesson.  Harry never realised how unfit he was as he breathed heavily, trying to get oxygen to his lungs, and trying to take in the professor's words while he jogged.  Of course he was not very fit, he never had to run long distances.  Harry was always proud of his short distance running though, although anyone could easily outrun Dudley.  To Harry's relief, everyone else seemed to be struggling.  The only person who did not look like they were about to keel over was Dean, who Harry knew played soccer.  Hermione looked dead on her feet, her cheeks red as she puffed alongside him.  Ron's whole face was red as he breathed loudly.  Parvati seemed to be lagging behind a bit, and Neville looked like he was trying very hard not to lag behind as well.

Harry was glad that they could walk as they reached the last hundred metres or so, just to warm down.  They stretched when they reached the Entrance Hall.

"So, did anyone hear what spells we're learning today?"  Plum asked, stretching his calf muscles.

"Uh, distracting spells?"  Ron ventured a guess, only taking in some of Plums' speech during the run.  

Plum laughed, "Correct!  Five points to Gryffindor!  Of course, you were all concentrating on the jogging and would not have absorbed what I was saying.  A word of advice; if you listen to me speaking, the jog finishes much quicker."  Neville looked confused at this.

Harry thought about that statement for a while, then realized the wisdom in his words, "he means that if we don't think about the jogging, then we don't realise how much time's gone by while we jog and it seems quicker," he explained.

"And if you're not thinking about the jogging, you won't feel as tired," Hermione agreed, a smile on her face at the realization.

"Correct," Plum nodded, "back to the classroom!"

~*~

Upon returning to the class, everyone felt more energised.

"You always feel more energetic after some fitness activities," Plum explained.

They went on to list the spells that came from other areas such as transfiguration and charms that were useful in a duel and they would try and their affects, Harry now knew how to make people think what they are seeing is real when what they are seeing is an image he created.  He also learnt how to make a pile of dirt in front of his opponent rise to cover his opponents view, how to make a blinding white light accompanied by a thunder crack, how to make his opponent lose all of their clothes (they only tried this on a dummy) and how to make an image of himself appear elsewhere for a short time.  Not only that, but they also leaned some simple spells and shields to counter such tricks.

"Class dismissed!"

Everyone chatted excitedly as they put their notebooks in their bags and stood up to leave.

"Mr. Potter, if you could stay behind?"

Harry looked at Plum, surprised, but the professor just smiled reassuringly, "don't worry, you're not in trouble."

Ron and Hermione looked at him expectantly, but Harry waved them on.

"We'll wait outside," Hermione said.

"That's okay, you probably want to start on your essays," Harry smiled as Hermione nodded.

"See ya, mate," Ron said as he followed Hermione out, a pained expression on his face at the thought of beginning his essays.

"We'll be in the library," Hermione smiled.  The two of them left, closing the door behind them.

"Do you have a lesson now, Mr. Potter?"  Plum asked, looking straight at Harry.

"Uh, no," Harry said.

"Good," Plum nodded, "we don't want you to be late for your lessons, now do we?"

Harry just nodded, not sure how to answer.

"So, you're the famous Harry Potter!"  Harry was surprised at the sudden change in tone; the professor had not mentioned Harry's fame during the lesson, to Harry's surprise.  Now, though, he was staring openly at Harry's scar.

"And that is the mark you were given when you were a baby?"  As Harry nodded, Plum had transfigured his quill into a magnifying glass and was looking very closely at Harry's scar.  Harry thought it would be rude to move away, so he just stood there in discomfort.

"Ah, such a strangely shaped scar," Plum commented, "magical scars, cursed scars, are always strange in shape.  I hear that Headmaster Dumbledore has a scar on his knee in the shape of the London Underground map."

Harry gasped, surprised; he had never heard that before.

Plum stepped back, "I have a scar too.  It's actually some Muggle machine, a computer I think, did you want to have a look?  It's on my inner thigh…"

"Uh, no thanks," Harry said hurriedly, as Plum reached for his belt.

Plum looked at Harry for a moment, and laughed, "just kidding, although the scar really is there."

"Oh," Harry said stupidly, not knowing what he should say.

"Now, you probably wondered why I asked you to stay behind?"  Harry nodded, glad that there was a proper reason Plum had wanted to see him, other than to show off his scar.  If anyone had magical scars to show off, it was probably Moody.

"I assumed that you wouldn't have wanted to stand out in front of the rest of the class.  The reason I asked you to stay behind was to ask about your regular experiences with the Dark arts," Plum began, and Harry wondered which event Plum was referring to, and how he knew about them in the first place.

"Don't worry, Dumbledore has given me a brief description of your exploits," he added when he saw Harry's look of suspicion, "so in your experiences, how did you manage to escape your encounters with evil?  I'm sure the other students could learn a lot from your experiences."

Harry had to think about the question for a while.  _How_ did he escape Voldemort time after time?  Luck had a lot to do with it.

"Um, I think I'm just lucky," Harry said, after some thinking.

Plum laughed, "that would be one of the factors," he agreed, "but I'm sure you didn't escape with just pure luck."

Was that true?  In his first year, he was just acting brave.  In his second year, he was saved by Fawkes and the Sorting Hat.  Last year, he was saved by a simple Disarming spell and a simple summoning charm.  But what did each situation have in common that allowed him to survive until this day?

"Well, I think that apart from being lucky, I kept my head in those situations, enabling me to think clearly and use simple spells for specific purposes," Harry said thoughtfully.  He looked to Plum to see if that was the answer he wanted.  Plum was beaming down at him.

"Precisely!  That's what I wanted to hear; you can learn all the spells you want, but unless you can keep your head when faced with danger, you won't be able to use even the simplest of spells.  As we are in a school environment, it is difficult to learn how to keep from panicking when faced with a dangerous foe.  The rules restrict us from hurting students… in order for them to learn I may have to hurt them a little."

"In my second year here, our teacher had a Duelling Club," Harry said, without even thinking.  Why was he telling this weird Professor about the Duelling Club?

"A Duelling Club?  Sounds brilliant!  We can all benefit from a Club like that!"  Plum said triumphantly.  "Well Mr. Potter, I only wanted to know how you survived your foes, but now you give me an even better way to teach the students, this is amazing!  I shall have to speak to Headmaster Dumbledore about this!  You may now leave!"

Harry quickly left the over-ecstatic Plum behind, making his way towards the library.

"Ow!"

Turning a corner, Harry had run into someone and dropped his bag on the floor, along with it's contents.  Looking up, he saw that it was none other than Malfoy, although his goons were not there for a change.

"Look where you're going Potter!"  Malfoy yelled, hurriedly putting his things back in his bag.

"Well, excuse me, but you weren't looking as well!"  Harry retorted, beginning to stuff his things back into his bag as well.

"Well well, I didn't know you carried a mirror, although I shouldn't be surprised, wouldn't want to smile at your fans when you've got something stuck between your teeth," Malfoy sneered.

Harry was a little confused at first, but then saw the little mirror near the wall and remembered that it was the foe-glass he had received from Sirius and Remus for his birthday (chapter 6).  He quickly picked it up and stuffed it in his bag.

"If you must know, I've kept one since second year, in case the monster from the Chamber of Secrets attacks again," Harry quickly lied.

Malfoy just eyed Harry curiously, then shrugged, "well, I'll let you off for walking into me this time, Potter.  But watch out, next time…"

"Yeah, yeah, next time you'll let Bangers and Mash loose on me," Harry muttered, walking away.

"Who?"  Malfoy asked Harry's back, but Harry had already gone too far to hear.

As Harry walked away, he thought about the mirror, he had seen some people in it, although they were blurry, and the mirror felt hot.  Harry looked around to make sure no-one saw him with a mirror, took the mirror out of his bag and stuffed it into his pants pocket.  He must have enemies in his vicinity, but did that include school enemies, or were these enemies more dangerous?

~*~

"Professor Plum is one weird man," Harry muttered quietly as he took a seat in front of Ron and Hermione in the library.

"What did he want, anyway?"  Ron asked, looking up from a half-filled roll of parchment.  Harry could see that Ron had started on his charms assignment.

"I didn't think he was weird," Hermione said, flipping a page of a large book, "I mean, he just seems happy."

"More like hyper," Harry said under his breath, "anyway, at first he was going to show me his magical scar that was in the shape of a computer…"

"What's wrong with that?  He's just comparing scars!  He probably reckons his is cooler looking than yours," Ron sniggered.

"Well, then he asked how I escaped Voldemort," Ron winced at this, "and I mentioned that we had a duelling club, then he got all excited over the idea of starting a duelling club."

"I still don't think that's weird, he's just enthusiastic," Hermione said, "and he is a good teacher."

"Yeah, that man knows his stuff," Ron agreed, "what did you write about charming an object so that it can have an affect on the people who touch it?"

Hermione looked at her notes, "well, some objects are naturally magical, like some precious gems, whereas some aren't and a spell can be used to make them magical…"

Harry got his notes, a piece of blank parchment, and his quill from his bag.  He began to work on his charms essay.

~*~

_Dear Gryffindor Quidditch team,_

_Practice will be held Monday evenings for an hour at __five o'clock__ and Saturday afternoons at __two o'clock__.  More practices will be scheduled later._

HP 

Harry had caught up with Madam Hooch after dinner and she had agreed to overlook their practices.  After going to see Madam Pomfrey, he returned to the common room and pinned the notice up on the notice board next to the Weasley twins' advertisement.

"Hey Harry!"

Fred swung an arm around Harry as George stood on Harry's other side with his arms crossed.

"I see you have scheduled our practices!"  George said, reading the note Harry had put up.

Harry grinned at them, "and I see your advertisement has not suffered Hermione's wrath."

Fred chuckled, "well Mr. Potter, you obviously underestimate our abilities."

"As seventh years, we are privy to more spells and charms than you simple fifth years," George said.

"Our beautiful piece of advertisement has undergone several charms to assure it stays where it is," Fred said.

George patted their advertisement, "our dear piece of parchment can withhold simple fifth year spells…"

"And I think Professor McGonagall will be capable of removing your advanced seventh year spells, don't you think?"

They all jumped as Hermione stepped up behind them.

"Well, hello there, Miss Granger!  Are you not supposed to be on your Prefect guard tonight?"  Fred said nervously.

"Being late to your duty is just not on," George added.

"Ron and I were on our way," Hermione sniffed, as Ron looked anywhere but at the twins.

"You were just kidding about telling McGonagall, weren't you?" George asked hopefully.

"No, I was not.  Your advertisement will be gone by tomorrow," Hermione said, "good night."  She walked towards the exit.

"See ya, mate," Ron said quietly as he followed her, rolling his eyes.

"That calls for some action on our part," George said, as soon as Hermione was out of earshot.

Harry looked at them, confused.

"We'll get to McGonagall before she does, McGonagall must hear our side first!"  Fred said, "g'night, Harry!"  Fred waved.

"Good night," Harry replied, and watched as the twins left the common room.

He made his way up the stairs to the fifth year boys dorm.  Neville was getting ready for bed, while Seamus was writing a letter to his relatives.  Dean was lying on his bed, reading a Muggle magazine.

Harry got changed, rummaged through his trunk, and hid the communicating stone under his shirt.

"Good night, everyone!"  He said loudly.

"Good night," the others replied, not looking up from what they were doing.

Harry pulled the curtains closed around his bed, and cast a silencing charm, before holding the purple stone in his hand and speaking into it.

"Mum?  Are you busy?"

Harry knew that Lily had the stone on a necklace and had charmed it so that only she could hear when Harry spoke.  Harry thought it was a good idea, but as he already had Hagrid's amulet, he didn't want to be seen wearing two stones.

"No honey, I'm not busy.  Just hang on a moment, I need to take my charm off of it so that Magnolia can hear as well."

Harry waited a moment, and then Lily said, "how are you, dear?"

"Well, good I guess, same as usual," Harry said, smiling.  It was nice to have someone, who genuinely cared, ask him how he was.  "How about you?"

"Yes, all is fine here," Harry could hear the smile in her voice, "Magnolia is busy with the computer game console at the moment, so you'll have to bear talking with just me."

Harry chuckled, "that's fine!  Do you know Michael Plum?"

"Hmm, is he the weird one with brown hair?"

"Yeah, he's the one!  He's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."

Harry heard Lily laugh on her end, "well, he's an interesting man, you might want to keep your eye on him."

"He is a good teacher I guess, although a little over enthusiastic at times.  Snape really seems to hate him though."

"Severus seems to hate a lot of people," Lily sighed.

"He's the same as usual, always taking points off Gryffindor and picking on me in potions…"

"I'm sure after some time he'll see you're not James and be more reasonable…"

"It's been four years already, I think that is a lot of 'some time's.  Anyway, he picks on Neville more than me, although Neville is a little clumsy in class.  He didn't hate Neville's dad or anything did he?"

"Not that I know of, then again, I didn't keep track of all the enemies Snape made, the Marauders lost track of it ages ago."

"Still, there's still something weird about him…"

"Perhaps you should write down everything you know about him, see if his actions and his abilities are like those of a Death Eaters' or if there's something out of the ordinary, if that's what you're worried about."  Something in her tone of voice was very suggestive, and Harry decided he would do just that.  "So how are your other classes?"

"Well, all the teachers are assigning a lot of homework because we have OWLS this year.  What is the scoring system for OWLS like?  Snape asked me in class, and I had no idea."

"Outstanding is the top score, then Exceeds Expectations, and then Acceptable.  Those are the pass grades.  The rest are Poor, Dreadful, and then Terrible."

Harry thought about the names for a moment, "wizards sure have a weird way of doing things sometimes."

Lily laughed, "I can agree with that, although wizards think Muggles have a weird way of doing things as well I guess."

Harry sighed, "looks like Snape's going to give me Terrible for everything…"

"Cheer up dear, if you have any problems, I can help you."

"Really?"

"Yep, although Potions isn't really my fort, I managed well enough when I was studying it.  What are you looking at now?"

"Well, we're looking at direct influences of one ingredient on another…"

Harry spent the rest of the night discussing potions, the Marauders, and Lily's experiences.  All in all, the night was well spent.  And in his exhaustion, Harry didn't have any dreams.

~*~

"Traitorous son is still alive and walking around as though he owns this place… Mistress would be so maddened to see the company traitorous son keeps…"

The door to the attic opened, and Sirius' head appeared.

"Kreacher!"  He sounded angry, "I ORDER you to place a spell on Snape to…"

He stopped for a moment, then reconsidered.  He smiled devilishly then, "I order you to follow Snape around next time he is here!"

~*~

AN: end for now, quite a long chapter if you ask me!  Sorry if it's slow, but some important points are brought up in it.  The pace should pick up next chapter!

In case you don't know Bangers and Mash, if memory serves me correct, they are a pair of gorillas in a cartoon I used to watch as a kid.  Somehow I remember the song though… Bangers and Mash, Bangers and Mash… ^_^

To all you Marauders and Snape fans, they should make more of appearance in the next chapter.

As always, if you have any comments and suggestions, please leave a review or email to tonderumushi@yahoo.com.au.  Seeya!

~ultrasoul


	17. Chapter 17

AN: Hello! Anybody still reading this? Sorry for the wait, and to make a long story short, examslaze=no update. Also, for the coming months, homeworklaze=slow update, so please bear with me!

This chapter is dedicated to **Rocky235**, who updated a lot of my chapters on the same day and flattered me greatly! To **Sailor Sol**, who correctly guessed who Plum really is, and to **risi** for your thoughtful reviews!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and co. belongs to JKR, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros., and various other companies. I only own the plot!

Chapter 17

It was a Saturday afternoon two weeks into the school year. Harry waited on the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, arms crossed across his chest to stave off the cold wind. Harry had posted a message on the board regarding the Quidditch try-outs (the note was posted where Fred and George's advertisement vacated, thanks to Professor McGonagall), and he had also managed to persuade the Hufflepuff Keeper to help them with the try-out process.

Professor Plum, who was watching over the try-outs, let out a whoop each time more Gryffindor's turned up. He was on a school broom and was circling above, sometimes doing a loop or a dive. Hagrid was sitting in the stands, with Hermione beside him. Neville was sitting beside Hermione. Harry still hadn't found out what Hagrid's mysterious job over the summer was, and Hagrid hadn't been generous with the facts. Hermione was talking with Hagrid, and Harry hoped that Hermione could find out something about Hagrid's summer.

Soon there were over twenty students huddled together, looking around nervously. Ron was among them, trying not to look at his brothers, who had plastered evil grins on their faces just to scare their little brother.

It seemed as though no one else was coming, so Harry decided to begin.

"Thank you everyone for expressing an interest in our House Quidditch team. Those of you who are interested in the Keeper position please…" Harry began, and then saw the Creevey brothers stumbling towards them.

"Sorry we're late!" Colin squeaked, looking strangely bare without his camera around his neck.

"Peeves wouldn't let us through the Entrance Hall, so we had to climb through a window," Dennis explained, leaning on his older brother as he explained.

"And then Dennis ran into my broom…" Colin was saying, as some of the Gryffindors chuckled.

"Okay," Harry began again once everyone was settled, "we will run try-outs for the Keeper position first. Those interested, please line up here…"

Ron was third in line, after a nervous looking Seamus and visibly shaking Dennis. There were five people who wanted to try-out for the Keeper position.

"You will each try to block ten shots from our Chasers, you will be assessed on both your style and the amount of shots you manage to block." Harry said loudly. He lifted off with Katie, Angelina, and Alicia. As he passed them, he heard Hermione ask Hagrid where he had been during the holidays, to which he replied, "look there, Hermione, Harry's flying!" He grinned as he imagined Hermione rolling her eyes at the obvious change of subject.

Fred and George were watching from the stands, Fred with a clipboard in his arms and making scribbles on the board, the twins grinned at each other when they saw that the first person to try out was Dennis.

Dennis managed to block three goals, although Harry wasn't sure if he fluked the third save. With the last shot, the Quaffle hit the tails of the broom and Dennis fell from the broom. He fell but several metres before he was saved by Professor Plum, who had dived to catch him. Dennis awkwardly smiled a thanks, and was given a pat on the head by the Professor.

"Keep a good grip on that broom, kiddo!" He grinned. The rest of the team just stared at the Professor with newfound respect; it had been a spectacular dive from where Plum had originally been.

Harry gave Ron a thumbs up as his turn came, and looked on in pride as Ron made his best effort to block the Quaffle, saving seven out of ten goals. Plum was floating beside Harry, pointing out everyone's bad flying habits and good flying skills. Harry was actually glad that Plum was pointing these things out; he was a good flier, but he'd never gone and studied proper flying theory and tactics like Oliver Wood would have done.

The process was quite efficient, and the end of the Keeper try-outs approached quickly.

Only three people tried out for the Seeker position, so that came and went in about half an hour.

The Beater try-outs went quite well too; most people came in pairs to try out for the position. Those who weren't in pairs were paired up. Five blue balls and five yellow ones were charmed to float around acting as two teams, while the Beater's had to go against Fred and George to see who could hit the other team the most ("Ginny, you're supposed to hit the balls, not us!" Fred exclaimed, while Ginny grinned evilly and passed the Bludger to her partner Dean. "Looks like there's some Beater blood in me after all"). Plum had to duck a Bludger that Dean accidentally sent towards him ("sorry, Professor!").

The last pair of Gryffindors were trying out for the Beater positions when the Hufflepuff Keeper turned up; he was a tall blond boy with an upturned nose, and he made his way to the top of the stands. Harry indicated for the girls to keep a watch on the try-outs while Harry went to greet the Hufflepuff on the stands.

"Hello, Smith! Thank you for helping us with the try-outs," Harry smiled appreciatively.

Zacharias Smith took Harry's outstretched hand and shook it, "no probs, as your team will be helping with our try-outs too. We need to find a new Seeker and all…"

Harry avoided eye-contact; he didn't like this boy's tone of voice. Colin, who was standing to the side, heard what Zacharias said and piped up, "whoever your new Seeker will be, they won't beat Harry, he's the best!"

"Colin!" Harry said sharply, "no need for that, he's here to help us."

Zacharias looked at Colin disdainfully, "we had a good Seeker, until last year…"

"Now, Mr. Smith, there is no need for that!" Plum had come up behind Harry and placed a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder, which Harry was surprised to find he didn't mind.

Harry's shallowly buried guilt was being dug up again; it _was_ his fault that Cedric died, that Cedric had taken the cup, that Voldemort came back… at that moment, Fred and George landed with the two other Gryffindors, and went up to them.

"Hey Smith! How's it going?" Fred grinned.

"Well, you need to get up there in a mo mate," George looked to Harry, "gonna try out the Chasers now, Harry?"

At the mention of his name, Harry snapped back to reality.

"Uh, yeah," Harry said quietly, and then turned towards the Gryffindors seated in the stands and said more loudly, "everyone, this is Zacharias Smith, Keeper of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. He will be helping with the try-out for the Chaser positions. You will be chasing against our current Chasers and trying to get as many goals as you can past Zacharias in ten minutes. Our current Chasers will be trying to keep the Quaffle from you and get as many goals as they can past Fred Weasley. Now, our first group…"

The Chaser try-outs took longer than the others, mostly because they were really trying out three people at a time, and that it was very hard for the newcomers against the seasoned Gryffindor Chasers, even though they were going relatively easy on them. One or two of the Chaser try-outs were very good, and got a lot of goals past Zacharias Smith. On the other hand, some obviously had never played Quidditch before and hardly got any goals, but they had good style.

It was early evening when the gruelling process of try-outs were completed. Zacharias excused himself as soon as his feet touched the ground, Fred mimicking his straight-backed walk for a few metres before Harry told him to come back. The Gryffindors all gathered in a group, and Harry cleared his throat.

"We will discuss your try-outs amongst ourselves first, and we will announce the results tonight after dinner. Thank you all again for coming and trying out!"

"How do you think I went?" Ron asked Harry nervously as Harry was packing the balls away.

Harry shrugged, "I think you did fairly well, you saved twice as many balls as Dennis did…"

Ron looked disheartened, "how can you compare me to him!?" He looked at Colin walking back to the castle with Dennis, the two boys smacking each other on the backs and laughing as they talked. Dennis replayed his fall from the broom for his brother, who was acting as Professor Plum, and the two of them tripped over their brooms and laughed.

"At least you're better than someone at all, little bro," George said, patting Ron on the shoulder.

"I can assure you that Dennis did not make the Keeper position," Fred laughed.

Harry grinned, "don't be so sure yet, we need to discuss it first."

"Neville, why didn't you try out as well?" Hermione asked, as Hagrid congratulated everyone and seemed to make a quick getaway to avoid questions.

"You saw me flying in first year, Hermione!" He said, face flushing.

"Give him a break, Hermione, why didn't _you_ try out?" Ron said.

It was Hermione's turn to flush, "I, unlike you, find that time is better spent studying. It's an important year this year…"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see you back in the common room later?" Ron turned to Harry.

"Yeah, see you!"

"Good bye Ronniekins!" Fred called in a baby voice.

"Itty bitty brother Ronnie didn't save enough goalies!" George called.

"Cut it out you guys, Ron did quite well…" Harry began.

"Look at that, our gentle captain!" Fred exclaimed, patting Harry on the back, "he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings!"

Harry rolled his eyes and waved to Ron, Hermione, and Neville.

"So, what did you think?" Harry turned to the other members of the team. Katie leaned over the clipboard that Angelina was holding, eyes scanning the notes that the other team members made throughout the tryouts.

"Well, these people showed some potential…" Katie began.

"Need a hand there, Mr. Potter?" Harry turned around and smiled at Professor Plum.

"If you've got a hand to spare, yeah," Harry answered. They had decided on the new members of the Quidditch team, and the others had changed and headed back to the castle on Harry's insistence that he could handle taking the balls back to the school broom shed. Professor Plum had offered to stay behind, as Professor Dumbledore had stated that students should stay in groups or have some teacher supervision.

"Allow me," Plum said, and levitated the box. They walked towards the broom shed.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"You did very well today, Mr. Potter," Plum said. "You make a very good captain."

"Thank you," Harry said, then grinned, "and you gave me some very good advice, Mr. Potter."

Professor Plum grinned back, "I was wondering how long you'd take to figure me out!"

Harry laughed, "well, there were several clues, I just didn't put them together until today."

"Really? Care to elaborate?"

"Well, Snape really hates you…"

"He hates a lot of people though, so I wouldn't really call that a hint…"

"Professor Dumbledore trusted you enough to tell you about my, uh, history here…"

James laughed, "oh yes, I am one to be trusted!"

"Seeing as your wife knew about computers, I assumed she was a Muggle or a Muggleborn…"

"Bless her, my Lily!" James spelled the box into the shed, and locked it. The two of them turned and made their way to the change rooms.

"And she told me to keep an eye on you!"

"Did she? Did she think I was going to hurt my son?"

"And you fly really well…"

"It's in our blood!"

"And when Dennis Creevey almost got Zac in his, uh, sensitive parts, I saw you do a loop out of the corner of my eye, and that loop I've only seen once, back in your world…"

"As a Professor I should show more care for my students, but what that boy said before was out of line!"

Harry sighed, "were you going to tell me who you were if I didn't figure it out? Were you just going to leave me in the dark?" Harry quickly changed back into his school robes, his back turned to James. He didn't want James to see how upset he was.

James came up behind him and patted his head, "of course not! I mean, Dumbledore told me you and your friends had a knack for figuring things out. But if you hadn't, I would have told you eventually."

"Eventually?"

"Yeah, I would have surprised you, one day while you're wondering the corridors by your lonesome, I'll threaten a detention, and kaboom! You find out my true identity!"

When Harry stayed silent, James continued, "no, really, I wouldn't have kept you in the dark! I intended to tell you on Halloween, as a surprise! Ask Lily if you don't believe me!"

Harry slowly smiled, "I believe you, but why on Halloween? Why not earlier?"

"Well, we needed you to get into the routine of treating me as just a Professor, can't have you expecting favours. And we've had quite a lot to do since I've joined this universe, so I didn't want you worrying." James hugged Harry.

"Okay, I understand," Harry let go, and the two of them made their way out of the change rooms towards the castle, "so what are oSirius and oRemus doing anyway? And oSnape? What is this 'Order business' you've gone on, anyway?"

"Ah, my son, nothing for you to worry your pretty head about! Just us trying to settle into this different environment!"

Harry knew from the tone of voice he wouldn't get any answers if he pushed, so he changed the subject, "so are you going to do a duelling club?"

James twirled his wand, and smiled, "I have spoken to Dumbledore about it, he has agreed to let me run a duelling club. I'm not sure when we'll start, there are some things that need to be sorted, like who will run it with me and what sort of spells to do."

Harry chuckled, "Lockhart and Snape showed us the Expelliarmus, then he tried to show a shield, which he couldn't manage. Honestly, the only spell that that man could do properly was a memory charm."

"And maybe something to make his teeth shiny and his hair so wavy," James added.

There was a definite tension in the Gryffindor common room that night after dinner. Dinner had been a silent affair as Ron tried to avoid looking at anyone in the Quidditch team, silently stuffing the roast potatoes in his mouth and staring at his plate. None of the other team members shared the results, waiting for after dinner, in a hopes that the people who didn't get in the team could sleep off the disappointment of not making it onto the team.

There was a hushed silence as Harry walked into the common room. He made his way over to the students sitting in front of the fire, and cleared his throat.

"Okay, I will now announce the new members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and the reserve team."

Ron was still avoiding eye contact with everyone as he sat in silence. Hermione sat next to him, squeezing his hand in support. Even Fred and George respected everyone's nervousness and promised to stay quiet until the results have been announced.

The silence was thick, and tried Harry ignored everyone's stares as he continued, "our reserve Seeker is Natalie McDonald!"

The second year student gasped in surprised, then squealed and hugged her friend.

"Reserve Beaters are Seamus Finnegan and Dan Sloper," Seamus and Dan high-fived each other, identical victorious grins on their faces.

"Reserve Chasers are Colin Creevey," somehow, it pained Harry slightly to announce that, "Dean Thomas, and Ginny Weasley. Reserve Keeper is Matthew Green."

At this point, Fred and George wrapped their arms around Ron's shoulders, "sorry little bro."

"Looks like you don't have it in you after all," George sighed, "this is a moment to mourn, a Weasley (apart from Percy) not making the team."

Hermione scowled at them, and opened her mouth to say something, but Harry said, "and our Keeper is Ronald Weasley!"

Ron was still looking crestfallen, obviously living in his Weasley-twins

induced nightmare of being compared to Percy. Harry grinned, while Hermione nudged him, still glaring at the twins.

"Ron, wake up Ron!"

Ron's head suddenly snapped up, as he stammered, "I made the team?"

He was faced with grinning faces, and his face broke into a true grin, "I made the team!"

Harry chuckled at his friend's surprise, and applauded along with everyone else. He then cleared his throat, "practices will be every Tuesday evening from 5 to dinner time, and Sunday afternoons from 12 o'clock. This year we are gonna win!"

Everyone burst into loud applause, while Colin and Dennis fell over doing some victory dance only the two brothers could understand.

"So how was your holiday?"

"Ye've already asked me before!"

"But you didn't tell us what you got up to!"

Hagrid rolled his eyes; three weeks into the school year and still, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had yet to get some answers from him. Any other time they wanted to ask him, he was either busy or they had other work to do, what with Ron and Hermione's Prefect duties, and Harry's Quidditch duties.

It was a cloudy Thursday afternoon. They had just finished their lesson and had a double free period, perfect for trying to get some answers from Hagrid.

"Ye already know more than ye should," Hagrid said, plonking a plate of brownies on the table.

"All we know is that you went to do some stuff for Dumbledore," Ron said, leaning back a little disgustedly as Fang rested his head on Ron's lap.

"And we've assumed that you've done something with Madam Maxime…" Harry put in.

"We think you went to see the giants…" Hermione added, "are you trying to get them to join our side of the war?"

Hagrid chuckled nervously, "do ye want a confirmation from me?" When he was met with three pairs of begging eyes, he sighed, "this is strictly Dumbledore's business. It's not any of yer business if he wants the giants to join us…" he stopped abruptly at the sight of the grinning faces, and put his head in his hands, "not again…"

But for all their efforts, the trio didn't get much more from him after that.

"Hello, Plum pudding!"

"Greetings, dog boy!"

James and Sirius hugged each other, James turned around and saw oSirius. "And if it isn't your canine friend!" He grinned and gave oSirius a hug as well.

"So how have you been enjoying your stay here?" James asked, as the three of them sat down around a rickety wooden table.

"Oh, lovin' it! I get to see portraits of my dear mother everyday, and I can converse with her too!" oSirius said sarcastically.

"And to top it off, oSnape frequents our little hideaway!" Sirius said.

"At least he stays in the furthest bedroom from the rest of the house most of the time."

"And we've found a way to annoy him when he's not in that bedroom!"

"Really?" James sat up excitedly, "how?"

"You'll see…" Sirius smiled mysteriously.

"I still don't understand why we have to stay at this wretched house, we could have used the Hole for headquarters…"

"Because it's better if that place is left for emergencies," Remus said matter-of-factly, walking into the room and plomping himself on the ragged couch in the corner, oRemus following the lead and sitting next to him, "and all the members of the Order know where this place is."

"Nice of you to join us Moonys!" James said amiably, "how's the moon been treating you?"

"I still don't believe you drink those concoctions that old Snivellus brews, you don't know what he puts in them," oSirius sniffed.

"Dumbledore trusts him, and so do I," oRemus said with a shrug, while Remus nodded in agreement.

"Look at our Moony, all grown up and mature," Sirius went over and patted Remus on the head.

Remus grinned, "which is a lot more than I could say about you guys!" Sirius picked up one of the cushions and threw it at him. Remus ducked it and stuck out his tongue.

"I thought oMoony was only staying for a bit?" James asked.

ORemus chuckled, "got some time off of work, but I do need to get back to it soon though. I'm only here for part of the ride…"

"BLACK!"

The Marauders all turned to the door, to see Snape and oSnape, both looking livid.

"Oh, why must Kreacher follow these slimy men…" everyone heard in the background. James stifled a laugh.

"Make that wretched house-elf of yours go away!" oSnape said through gritted teeth.

"Ooh, is that a favour? Are you asking me a favour?" Sirius said excitedly. Sirius, James, and Remus still owed oSnape a favour each, and none of them knew what sort of things oSnape had in store for them.

oSnape's eyes widened, "no, it's…"

"Time for our meeting to begin," no one noticed Dumbledore had arrived, standing in the doorway with a gentle smile on his face, "Sirius, please ask Kreacher to leave."

Sirius huffed and did as he was told. Snape sneered at him.

"Will the other members be coming tonight?" oSirius asked. At the other meetings when other members came, oSnape, oSirius, oRemus, and James had to stay in the room nearby to listen in. The only other person who knew of the other-worldly people was Moody, who had in fact seen them and was about to curse them before Dumbledore assured him that they were not Death Eaters. Dumbledore had looked amused, and his former students once again doubted Dumbledore's sanity.

"No, it is just us tonight," Dumbledore said, "tea, anyone? Or perhaps a lemon drop?" Everyone declinded, except oSirius, who excitedly accepted a lemon drop. Dumbledore conjured some sofas and sat in one, looking at everyone else.

"We shall begin with Severus," he stated calmly.

Snape stood up, and glanced around the room, then began, "I am still not sure what plans the Dark Lord has devised, I hardly attend the important meetings any more as he believes my place is in the dungeons with my potions. I know that at this stage he intends to recruit more members, rather than take the offensive. Even though the wizarding world has been alerted of his return, he has not planned to attack anyone yet."

Dumbledore nodded, "yes, he is giving us the false sense of security."

"I also know that Malfoy intends to blackmail some ministry members, whether to pull some strings so that some prisoners in Azkaban could be released, or make access to Dementors easier, I do not know," Snape continued.

"Or maybe he just wants to recruit ministry members as Death Eaters," James thought aloud.

"Yeah, they're stupid enough to follow the stupid Dark Lord," Sirius scoffed.

"But you really need to attend more meetings if we are to find out anything more useful," oRemus said.

"We all attend the meetings, but then the Dark Lord dismisses most of us so that he could continue private meetings," Snape said in a menacing voice.

"What we need is to infiltrate his 'inner circle'," oSnape said.

Dumbledore leaned back and gazed at the ceiling, "who is usually left behind for these meetings?"

Snape thought about it for a moment, "definitely Malfoy, and Avery. Sometimes Nott as well…"

"Hmm, perhaps if we have someone impersonate Lucius Malfoy…" Remus said.

"No one can impersonate that arrogant bastard," James said. "Besides, you need to know exactly how he acts among his Death Eater mates and in front of Voldemort. Not to mention that there's that whole 'pull of the Dark Mark' thing working."

"Ah, but maybe we can pull it off," Dumbledore said, looking at the two Snapes thoughtfully. He turned to oSnape, "you say that you can feel the pull of the Dark Mark?"

oSnape nodded, "yes, but not as much as my counterpart. It is obviously a secondary connection to both my counterpart and the counterpart Dark Lord."

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. Sirius said, "that's an idea, and it would work for short periods of time, but wouldn't Narcissa realise something's amiss with him? I mean, to live under the same roof, and I doubt that Snape would want to sleep in the same bed as her for who knows how many months…"

James smiled grimly, "then we need to take care of her as well, don't we?"

Narcissa Malfoy was proud of her achievements, and she was reflecting upon these as she looked out at the dark night sky. Her husband was what any witch wanted; an impressive pureblood, and not only that but he was working to rid the world of Muggles and Muggle-lovers. Her son was sorted happily into Slytherin, where true purebloods were sorted, and will no doubt follow in his father's footsteps. The estate she lived in was magnificently rich, with polished wooden floors, velvet curtains, and more rooms than they needed. She had house-elves to use as she felt necessary, and money enough to feed families ten times as big as the Weasley's. She was proud that she had become a woman of such status. Her ego was almost comparable to Lockhart's, almost.

As she looked outside, she wondered what the Dark Lord would ask of her husband. Of course, she was a Death Eater herself, but not as high-ranking as Lucius was, so she was not needed at the meeting that night. She looked lovingly at the reflection she made in the window; her blonde hair flowed down in curly waves down her back, framing her thin and elegant face. Her face could be very expressive, something an actor would envy. She smiled at herself, admiring the beauty in such a simple expression. Out in public, she was usually expressionless to show her distaste of mixing with the lesser wizards. She didn't smile very often, but she had categorised all the types of smiles she could do. She could do the happy smile, the one that had first intrigued Lucius. The evil smile and fake smile she reserved for the house elves and any hapless Muggle crossing her way. The grateful smile and nervous smile was, of course, The Dark Lord's.

After standing there for a long time admiring her own looks, she made her way to the king-sized bed. On the bedside table was her usual glass of wine next to the fragrant flowers that their house elf decorated the house with. She lay back comfortably and took a sip. The red wine was always relaxing to her, made by the finest fruits in their large backyard. She looked at the brilliant red of the wine, swirled the drink, and took another long sip, savouring the tangy feeling on her tongue. She looked at the beautiful flowers on the bedside table; they smelt so beautiful. The wine made her feel tired, and she downed the rest and placed the glass back on the bedside table, rested her head on the large plush pillow, and dozed off.

She didn't notice the almost silent footsteps making their way from her room, and she didn't know that her rest would last longer than the doctor-advised eight hours.

AN: There's your chapter! Sorry it was a bit rushed. Phew, one down, I-don't-know-how-many to go! So now you all know who Professor Plum really is! Good guess Sailor Sol! The plot is now beginning to thicken, a little…

Next chapter should bring a little more action and, perhaps, a murder attempt, or it might be the chapter after that!

Thank you to all those who reviewed the last few chapters, you are all so wonderful!-

**etzgo, WittchWay, Mz Runi, hermione21, phoebe666, minnie-mae, gaul1, Toni, Dark-Fox, Tanya J Potter, yache, goddess of darkness3, risi, Kateri1, Abluebird225, Silvercrystal77, Rocky235, Talamh, Reic, Calen, Eric2, Breena8, HyperCaz, princesscutle86, PrOnGs Da GrEaT, Acacia Jules, Acyla, Mystic Winds, Sailor Sol, Romm** (I really feel for you and your timetable… )**, Sykoticstalker27, fdhrhgrHA, risi, petite sorcieres, Believe, bitten by the kitten, Imaginable, lil kawaii doom, Delphine Pryde, Mordsith Kaylae, minty, sarcastic spastic, Night-Owl123, amyaggie, Realm of darkness, rdufthjhjkgyvftcuh, Marauders-Lover, Sweet A.K, Rhyllen, HarryGryffinGirl, supernova8610, **and **Stephanie.**

I'm sorry if I missed anyone!

Now, to answer some questions:

_Regarding Bangers and Mash:_ sausages and mashed potatoes? Didn't know that, although I was aware it was a type of food, and of course, those two gorillas .

_Regarding Harry not waking up:_ you'll find out why later in the story. Toni, that would've been creepy having a friend with their eyes open but not waking up, never seen that before!

_Regarding Draco Malfoy:_ friend or foe? I have an idea which way I'm leaning towards, but that is not really that central to the story, but I don't believe that he is totally evil.

_Regarding oSnape's Dark Mark:_ I think I answered your question in this chapter, Romm . How did you survive your lab times? I had one-hour lectures at 8 o'clock last semester and barely survived!

_Regarding Cluedo:_ I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but apparently Cluedo is called that everywhere except for America where it's called Clue. I dunno what's the deal with that…

_Regarding raw potatoes:_ hmm, you'd be one of the first people I know of who eats raw potatoes ss, I've only ever eaten them cooked. I might have to try one day… and I know what you mean trying to get sleep without interruption, I sleep in the loungeroom!

_Regarding Ginny:_ I will be following OoTP in this respect and have her dating someone else, a character who is never in the same room as the main character is just not very interesting, if ya get what I mean.

_Regarding Snape's past:_ I'm still undecided about whether it'll be the same as in OoTP, James was a bit of a bastard, wasn't he? But it's not central to this fic, so it may not even be mentioned.

_Regarding my exams:_ thanks to all those who gave me encouragement, I surprisingly did okay in them! But as soon as exams are over, there are the next lot to study for, (sigh). That's not for a few months yet, but as I'm overloading, I'll be pretty busy. A word of wisdom to students out there: don't overload! It's one of the stupidest things I've done!

_Regarding my writing:_ I'm so flattered that everyone is enjoying my writing, and as a beginner, all your reviews have greatly inflated my ego. I hope my style and ideas are still to your liking!

As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, critiques, please leave a review or email , toodles!

ultrasoul


	18. Chapter 18

AN: Sorry for the wait, peeps! But at least I didn't leave you there for 4 months this time (yeah, yeah, I'm just trying to justify this time's wait )

I know you don't want to hear any excuses, but I do need to justify myself: there was schoolwork (it's never ending, believe me) and I couldn't get into ffnet for the past two weeks (I think the school realised what I've been doing and won't let me into that site anymore). Here's the thanks to reviewers and the chapter!

Thanks to:

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Birdy: Nothing to worry about, I'm not much for fluff, so there's not much risk of it being a fluffy H/G. In fact, I'm still thinking about the actual plot too much to think much about the pairings! And I can understand what it's like to be lazy, it's such a hard habit to get out of!

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Hermione21: Thanks for the review, hope you like this chapter!

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Corinnetkn24: Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Hope you enjoy this one.

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Tigris T Draconis: Okay, maybe I was mistaken in thinking not many people eat raw potatoes, because not many people I know do. There seems to be reviewers cropping up who do eat them raw! I'm still writing, won't stop writing yet, so what it is I would meet if I didn't write? Thanks for the review!

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I-want-to-fly: I'd love to fly too, but the changes in pressure will probably kill my poor sensitive ears . Well, I think the Marauders changing Snape's hair colour has been overdone a bit, and I couldn't think of anything else that'd annoy Snape except of Kreacher following him (Oh, my poor mistress, what would she say…) I did intend to update a bit sooner, but couldn't get into ffnet. At least it wasn't a four month wait this time .

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Readingfreak742: I'm glad you like my story, hope this update was soon enough for you!

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Sierra-Falls: Yep, got the idea. But, no matter how many 'more's you put up, passing my studies will always go before fanfic, so updates may take a while at times. Hope you like this chapter though, and thanks for that review!

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NoAlias: Thanks for the great review! I'm blushing at the compliments! Hmm, whereabouts do you think it gets confusing? Am I just leaving holes everywhere? So far, most people have said differentiating between people from different worlds has been easy to understand. Lol, I think that the third dimension chapter was unnecessary as well, but it was fun to write, and it was the holidays, had nothing better to do! As for interaction with the other world, there won't be too much of that, as it's not very central to the plot. The only interaction with the other world is really with the other worldly Marauders, Snape, and Lily. Thanks for your review, and I hope you like the update!

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Phoebe666: Well, here's the chapter, hope you enjoy it, and thanks for the review!

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LimaBean0501: Well, this is sooner than four months, so I congratulate myself on that hope you like this chapter.

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Risi: A lot of people seem to think that my story will be full of Snape and the Marauders pulling pranks on one another. I haven't got many, if any, pranks planned really. The story is taking long enough as it is without adding more useless pranks to it. However, I do agree that James and Sirius have been long overdue for a prank pulled on them, so if you have any ideas, I'll consider them. Nothing too painful please, I like these characters too much to hurt them . You'll see what happens to Lucius in this chapter, it's probably not as exciting as you're imagining it though.

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Raven Deathood: You really like Sirius and oSirius picking on Snape and oSnape? Well, I just write those in because I think it's kind of expected from those characters. Have you read OoTP? You actually do feel sorry for Snape once you've seen what the Marauders do to Snape. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. Yes, Mags does respect Harry now, but that doesn't stop her being spoilt. Thanks for your review!

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Cecilia Orechio: Thanks for the review! Usually I'd feel sorry for Narcissa and Lucius, but I've made the Narcissa character the way she was so that I don't feel sorry for her, and Lucius is just evil, nothing to pity there! Tonks impersonating Lucius? I really can't imagine that, she's just so bubbly and clumsy! But I guess being an Auror with her training would have helped her pull it off. Harry will get to help in some of the action, but others he will be unable to help, but that's not for ages away. Hope this chapters alright, and thanks always for the review!

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Tha Tayla: As of now I haven't had time to get into my mail box, but once I do I'll send you an email.

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Pixy-Misa-Misao-Amano: Thanks for the encouragement, hope you like this chapter!

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Californianchick: Thanks for the review!

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Korrd: I've seen Prongs Jr. used everywhere, but I thought I'd be a little different and use something else. Did JKR actually give him a nickname? Anyway, thanks for your compliments!

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Stephanie: Hmm, I like it how you say I 'should' update, most of the other reviews just ask me to update, 'please'. You're trying to make me feel guilty, aren't you? You have nothing to worry about yet, regardless of how long I take for updates, there are no plans for abandoning this fic, and if I do, I'll be sure to let everyone know rather than just never ever updating again. Thanks for the encouragement!

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Kyla: I'm surprised my writing could get anyone hooked! Hope you like the update, thanks for the review!

I'm sorry if I missed anyone out! My thanks extends to all of you!

This chapter is dedicated to **NoAlias**, for the great review, and making me think quite a bit about my story. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, and not me, obviously.

Chapter 18

Dr. Benjamin Zaccardo was a rich man; his years of healing the rich in the wizarding community enabled him to buy the three-storey mansion he lived in. Being the top graduate of The Mediwizard Academy, his skills were sought out from all over. Today, on this bright and clear day, Dr. Zaccardo was called early in the morning by none other than the esteemed Mr. Lucius Malfoy.

He threw some Floo Powder in his fireplace. "Blott?" he called, "Blott, you there? This is urgent!" In the fireplace appeared a young face framed in light brown wavy hair. The face smiled widely and said, "Dr. Zucchini," Zaccardo groaned and rolled his eyes. "To what pleasure do I owe this early morning call?"

"Blott, we have been called to do a check up today on Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy," he said, "bring all of your equipment!"

"Right away, Doc!" Blott said and disappeared from the fireplace for a full five minutes before stumbling through the fireplace, a huge grin plastered to his face.

Jarred Blott was a young mediwizard wannabe. Leaving the family bookshop in the care of his sister, he had done his medi training, and was now working as Dr. Zaccardo's assistant. His dream? To become a fine healer of wizards and witches himself. Although Dr. Zaccardo did not have much hope for Blott, who was somewhat air-headed, he was a good assistant.

"We will apparate to the Malfoy Manor," Dr. Zaccardo said, "and remember: don't touch anything! His things are worth a lot more than you can afford, and it is not good to be on his bad side." Blott nodded hurriedly in agreement. He clutched the bag of equipment to his chest like a child would a teddy bear, and Disapparated after Dr. Zaccardo.

Malfoy Manor was larger than anything Blott could ever imagine living in; the green lawns stretched far and wide, with flowerbeds lining the walls. Blott looked around in wonder, hurriedly scurrying after Dr. Zaccardo's long strides. Dr. Zaccardo was a tall, lanky, man, whereas Blott was shorter and stockier. Blott had decided earlier on that he needed to get fitter in order to be able to follow Dr. Zaccardo around on his many jobs.

Reaching the large double doors to the Manor, Dr. Zaccardo reached up a bony hand to use the doorknocker, which was in the shape of a serpent's head. Before he reached it though, the door opened with a creak and there stood a scared-looking house-elf, looking even smaller in the shadow of the Doctor.

"Master Malfoy wants Gibby to be showing Doctor inside. Master Malfoy is waiting in the lounge," the house elf squeaked in what was definitely a female house-elf's voice. Dr. Zaccardo just nodded and followed the elf, while Blott smiled happily at the cute little thing.

They walked down beautifully decorated hallways, and Blott was beginning to wonder if they would ever get to the lounge room when Gibby stopped in front of a large archway.

Lucius Malfoy stood up from the couch as Dr. Zaccardo and Blott entered.

"Dr. Zaccardo, it is a pleasure to meet you," Lucius said with a slight bow, "and this is?"

"Oh, my assistant, Jarred Blott," Dr. Zaccardo gestured to Blott.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Malfoy," Blott said in a well-rehearsed greeting. He declined his head slightly.

"Likewise," Lucius said. Blott couldn't help staring at this prestigious man standing in front of him; the sunlight beaming through the windows reflected brightly from his silver blond hair. His pale eyes were cold, and a slight frown marred his pointy face. His robes were as black as night, without a spot of stars; this further enhanced his facial features.

"The situation?" Dr. Zaccardo asked, as he began to follow Lucius out of the room.

They were led to a wide set of stairs, and began to climb.

"I came home very late last night to discover Narcissa, who is usually awake when I return, asleep. I tried to shake her awake, but she would not budge," Lucius sounded distressed.

When they reached the second floor, Lucius turned to the left and began down the long hallway, "and how long has she been like this?" Dr. Zaccardo questioned.

"I do not know, as I was away at work all day yesterday," Lucius opened a large polished door to a large bedroom. Blott looked around Dr. Zaccardo to see a bed twice the size of his own, centred in the spacious room. There was a large window on the left, letting bright light shine off the polished wooden floors. There was a large walk-in wardrobe on the right, and a comfortable looking blue sofa with black velvet cushions situated next to the bed. In the bed was a red lump which Blott assumed was the Missus. There was a candle holder, an empty glass next to a bunch of flowers, and a little book, on the bed side table.

The three men made their way to the large bed. Lucius made his way to the left side of the bed, back facing the large window. Dr. Zaccardo went to Narcissa's other side, Blott following closely. He pulled out his wand and began making complicated wave motions above the bed. Lucius kept his grey eyes on his wife, while Blott had a note-pad out, making notes of the colours of the light that spurted out of the end of the doctor's wand.

The process continued for a long time. Gibby appeared with refreshments. Lucius sat down on the sofa, keeping his eye on the process, while Blott took two drinks from Gibby; one for himself and one for Dr. Zaccardo later on when he completed the checking process.

Finally, Dr. Zaccardo lowered his wand and sighed, "Your Lady seems to be in good health. Thanks, Blott," he said, as he accepted a drink from Blott. "There is nothing at all that suggests she is sick. However, I will need to conduct a blood test to see if there are any potions in her system that shouldn't be."

Lucius nodded in silence; what more could he do?

"Blott, give me a vial."

Blott hurriedly opened the case, and in his rush he almost dropped the vial.

"Here, Dr. Zucchini," he said, handing the vial to Zaccardo. Zaccardo gave him a disapproving look while accepting the vial. After obtaining the blood, Zaccardo turned to Lucius, handing Blott the blood sample.

"We need to go back to my labs to conduct some quick checks with this blood sample, we should be back here in an hour," he explained. Lucius just nodded silently as he kept his eyes locked on the still form of his wife.

Gibby showed them the way out the door.

"Get your gear on, Blott. Leave the vial on the desk," Zaccardo ordered. While the two healers magicked some lab-coats on, they heard a loud crash outside their window. Upon looking, they saw a cat and dog fighting each other.

"Look at that, Doc, isn't that cute!" Blott exclaimed.

Zaccardo rolled his eyes, "we need to get back to our work, can't leave Mr. Malfoy waiting too long!"

They turned around and began work on the blood sample, not noticing the door swinging slightly.

"Really, Mr. Black, can you not keep your own bodily fluids from spraying out of your mouth?" McGonagall cried as soon as she transformed back into a human, taking out a handkerchief and wiping the dog slag from her face. Sirius just gave a canine smile, tongue rolling out from the side of his mouth. Shacklebolt, who was just there for some backup, laughed at Sirius' display.

The two of them turned to the approaching footsteps, and Remus slipped out from the Invisibility Cloak.

"Did you get the Neutralising Potion into the blood samples?" McGonagall asked.

Remus gave an 'OK' sign, and winked, "yep, there'll be no way for them to know that Mrs. Malfoy had some potions in her system."

McGonagall nodded, while Sirius stood on his hind legs and licked Remus' face.

"You know Padfoot, imagine if you were a human doing that to me; that is so disgusting!" Remus only managed to control his facial features out of experience.

Sirius wagged his tale, and made a little yap, before touching his paw to the portkey to take him back to 12 Grimmauld Place.

The beginning of October was still too early for ordinary students to worry about exams. Hermione, however, was no ordinary student. She had taken the initiative for her friends by drawing up study schedules for them that worked around their Prefect duties and Quidditch practices.

However, she discovered that the timetables would need to be redone as she discovered a notice on the board that morning.

"A Duelling Club, ay?" Harry stepped up beside her.

Hermione nodded, reading the notice:

__

Dear students,

A Duelling Club will be held this year by Professor Plum. There will be three sessions per week in the Defence classroom-

First/second years on Saturday afternoons 12-2

Third/fourth/fifth years on Saturday evenings 5-7

Sixth/seventh years on Sunday afternoons 12-2

Feel free to come along, no signing up required. The first meeting will commence this weekend.

Professor McGonagall

"You gonna go?" Ron asked from beside Harry, making him jump.

"Of course I am! Can't miss something this important, these are skills we'll need! Although now we'll have to work Quidditch around it," Harry said.

"Oh no, I need to change our study timetables now!" Hermione exclaimed, "do you think your dad will be willing to change the times so that I don't have to change these timetables? These timetables will work out quite well…"

"Shh! I doubt that _Professor Plum_ will change the time just for the three of us," Harry said, looking around to make sure no-one heard. The Common Room was empty except for Neville, who was sitting in the corner trying to finish off one of Snape's essays, and the Weasley Twins discussing who-knows-what in a secretive manner in the other corner. Harry had told Ron and Hermione who James really was that night after the Quidditch announcements, although with Hermione of all people making a slip, Harry had to wonder if he had made a mistake.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Hermione, you're the smartest witch in our grade, and because of a little change in the timetables you make a stupid slip like that!"

Harry could see the two of them gear up for a verbal argument, so he stepped in, "let's go, break is almost over. What have we got next?"

Harry knew perfectly well that Potions was next, but hoped that the distraction would stop the argument, which it did as Hermione sighed, "Harry, it's our fifth week here and you still don't remember your timetable? Wednesday after break is Potions, then double DADA, then double Care of Magical Creatures."

"Oh, I need to get that stupid essay Snape wanted us to do!" Ron said, as he hurried up to the dorms to grab his essay. "I was doing it last night, forgot to put it in my bag!"

The three of them made their way to the dungeons, two of them dreading the coming lesson. As usual, they sat at the back, although well aware that Snape would make them move as he chose their groups for them.

"I hope I'm not stuck with Parkinson today," Ron muttered, "I've been stuck with her twice!"

"I've had her once, I totally understand what you mean," Harry muttered back.

"I think it's a, uh, good idea that he's getting us to… mix a bit more. I mean, we should be able to study in an environment without discrimination…" Hermione began, but stopped as Snape came in. He did not need to tell everyone to be silent as his imposing figure scared everyone into silence anyway.

"Today, we shall be making a general antidote, capable of washing out the most basic toxins from your system," Snape said, and crossed his arms, "what is the most important ingredient in a basic antidote?"

Harry did not need to wait long until his name was called out, "pixie dust," Harry ventured a guess, and knew immediately he was correct as Snape seethed.

"And from which gender of pixie?"

"Male?"

Snape sneered, "incorrect, the dust can be obtained from either. Five points from Gryffindor for foolishly guessing the answer."

Snape turned around and magicked the instructions on the board. Harry tried to keep his temper under control; he should be used to this by now.

"Your groups today are…"

Harry was grouped with Blaise Zabini and Malfoy.

"Nice going, Potter," Zabini sneered, "even _I_ knew the answer to that! Then again, we must thank you for losing points for Gryffindor…"

Harry rolled his eyes, mumbling, "didn't see _you_ putting your hand up."

Zabini shrugged, "why draw attention to myself in this class? Besides, he would've asked a follow-up question I might not have been able to answer. Sure, he wouldn't have taken points off of me, but to shame myself in front of a bunch of Gryffindors!" Zabini sounded like it was the most horrid thing imaginable.

Harry had never spoken to Zabini before; Zabini was a quiet Slytherin, not sneering and arrogant like Malfoy. Harry didn't have the energy to have a verbal fight with this Slytherin, and just remained silent. Besides, it wasn't as if Zabini was insulting him or his friends directly. He was shocked that Zabini actually turned out to be a relatively nice Slytherin who didn't insult him at every turn and glare daggers at him. Rather, Zabini seemed eager to get the work done right, which suited Harry just fine.

What shocked him even more was that Malfoy did not insult him throughout the whole lesson.

Harry found that after several weeks of jogging, his fitness had improved miraculously. As he looked around him, he saw that everyone else had gotten better as well. James was floating along lazily on his broomstick, talking about the spells they would be looking at that day.

While they were stretching, Harry asked, "Professor, can I ask a question?"

James smiled, "yes, Mr. Potter?"

"What sort of things will we do in the Duelling Club?"

"Can we do a _proper_ shield, not all that wand waving and dropping?" Seamus asked, while the Gryffindor boys laughed.

"Is Snape going to help with the lessons?" Neville asked worriedly.

James just laughed, "you'll find out in a few days time, boys! Now back to the classroom, we have work to do!"

Hagrid looked dejected as he showed them a several tanks full of Ramoras, magical silver fish that are the guardian of seafarers. As they divided into groups, the trio found out why.

"Professor Dumbledore wouldn't let me bring an Erumpent to show the class…" Hagrid sighed.

Harry looked at Ron with questioning eyes, Ron just shrugged while Hermione frowned, "aren't they large and dangerous though?"

"Only if provoked. And all creatures are only dangerous if you provoke them…"

"Really? Ah!" Ron jumped back as a Ramora jumped out of the water and made a huge splash. He bumped into Malfoy, who happened to be standing at the next tank.

"Watch it, Weasel!" Malfoy snarled.

"It was an accident!" Ron snarled back, "and if anyone should watch it, it should be you! At least we don't hide illegal objects in our home!"

The whole class was looking on, and Harry suddenly realised the mirror in his pocket felt warm, but he didn't want to take it out to have a look in front of so many people. Harry knew that Ron was referring to the Ministry raids that were to occur over the next few weeks. Malfoy uncharacteristically stayed silent, as he and Ron turned their backs on each other at the same time.

As the class was dismissed, Harry chanced a quick look at the mirror, only to see unidentifiable shadows. And he was also left with another mystery; which saintly cat had got hold of Malfoy's tongue?

"Absolutely predictable," Remus scoffed, as he stepped from the shadows. No-one looked twice at Remus; a dark creature all but belonged down Knockturn Alley, and anyone in a werewolf's company was most likely also up to no good.

"Well, we couldn't have done it without Harry's useful information," Sirius, in disguise, said, as he kicked the unconscious form of Lucius Malfoy, "honestly, at the first word of a Ministry raid, he goes straight to Borgin's. We only had to wait here. Too easy!"

"And it was almost too easy, it makes me wonder if _we_ are the ones walking into a trap?" Remus said as he looked around. The alley was relatively empty, and he couldn't sense anyone lingering around. Not to mention they had cast several spells to keep any attention away from them.

The two Marauders port-keyed with Malfoy to one of the dungeons at 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Are you sure it's safe to bring him here?" Remus asked one more time, as they made sure a charm was placed to keep Malfoy sleeping.

"Stop being such a worry wart Moony! I thought you got over that after your Prefect days were over! If there's one thing I'm proud of about the Black family, it is their ability to keep a prisoner where they want them," Sirius grinned, "no magic can be done from inside the cell, so Malfoy's as good as a Squib as long as he is kept within these cells."

"I see our guest has arrived," oSirius said from the doorway, "he's as ugly in this world as he is in ours."

"I didn't know you checked out guys," oRemus said from behind him, "there's more to you than I knew."

oSirius was about to reply when Kreacher appeared, "I is doing as Master wants, the greasy man is here with the old crazy man," he said in a normal voice, then quietly, "I is hoping that this time greasy man will finish off Mistresses treacherous son…"

The Marauders just ignored the rest of Kreacher's babble as they made their way to the dark lounge to greet Snape.

oSnape was already waiting for them with Snape, and Dumbledore was sitting comfortably, having conjured a plate of biscuits and a cup of tea for himself. Both Snape's were too nervous to insult the Marauders, and the Marauders respected the nervousness; this was the type of plan where so many things could go wrong.

"You have Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yep, easy as pie," Sirius said with a grin.

Dumbledore nodded, "now, Severus, are you ready?"

Snape looked a little nervous, but he did not hesitate, "yes, Albus. I have observed Malfoy's reaction to his wife's… illness, and am capable of acting as he has."

"And the potion?"

"By using the subject's blood, the potion should last twenty-four hours at a time, rather than one hour," Snape said.

"Ah," Remus breathed, "blood is used in the most powerful of magics," he said in understanding.

"Now all we need to do is extract some information from him, and then you are to take his place," Dumbledore nodded to Remus and said to Snape, then turned to oSnape, "and you are aware of our Severus' routine?"

oSnape nodded a little stiffly, licking his lips in anticipation.

"Then it is time to proceed…"

On Saturday evening, a large group of students milled about in the Defence classroom. All the tables and chairs were neatly stacked along the side, and a raised platform was magicked into the centre of the room. It also seemed as though the room was magicked to have more space than usual to accommodate all the students. Harry guessed that almost every third, fourth, and fifth year student was present; Professor Plum was such a popular teacher, even some of the Slytherin students seemed to like him regardless of Snape's dislike.

"I wonder what sort of spells we'll be learning? I mean, we're actually doing quite a lot of spells in the classroom…" Hermione wondered aloud.

"They've placed us with the fourth and third years as well, so it's probably something we already know. It'll be good revision anyway," Harry commented.

Ron scoffed from beside them, "you're starting to sound like Hermione there! 'Good revision', honestly!"

Harry chuckled and played along, "yep, I'm gonna follow that timetable, avoiding any sleep and leisure. I might even quit Quidditch just for more study time…"

Ron gasped in mock surprise, "but how are we gonna win without you being Seeker?"

"Natalie McDonald was quite good on her broom though, wasn't she?"

The trio jumped in surprise as Ginny came up behind them, Luna standing beside her.

"I was just kidding sis," Ron mumbled as he tried to avoid looking at Luna, who was staring at him.

"I saw Natalie earlier by the way, she said the Duelling Club went quite well this afternoon. Flitwick was there to help run it, and it was very enjoyable. Were there this many students when Lockhart was here?" Ginny asked interestedly.

"There were heaps of girls, but they all came to perve on that ugly git…" Ron said.

"Who's an ugly git?" Seamus joined their group, along with Dean and Neville.

"Lockhart," Harry answered.

"Yeah, he was, wasn't he?" Seamus agreed.

Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, "boys are just jealous of him because he's too good looking."

"He's ugly and he's stupid, why can't girls see that?" Ron said exasperatedly with a huge roll of his eyes.

"I agree with you Ronald Weasley, I don't think Professor Lockhart was good looking," Luna suddenly piped up.

At that moment, Professor Plum walked into the room, and behind him was Snape, gliding in with the usual billowing-cloak effect; the Gryffindor boys groaned.

"Greetings, students! Tonight is the first meeting for you third, fourth, and fifth year students! Professor Snape will help me run these sessions," James did not use his usual cheerful voice as he announced this; Harry, Ron and Hermione were the only ones who knew why. "Duelling is in fact a popular wizard sport, although it is often somewhat overlooked because of the overwhelming popularity of Quidditch. I hope that in running this club, you will gain some experience that will be very important in your futures. Duelling will only mimic real-life duels to a certain extent, but everyone should gain something from these sessions that is hard to gain in a normal classroom environment. Now Professor Snape and myself will give you a demonstration of how a proper Duel is executed."

James and Snape stood on the platform facing each other. "First we bow," James said, as the two of them bowed.

"Then we get into the standard duelling position, which is feet spread out and knees slightly bent to accommodate for quicker movements," they spread their feet out, shoulder length, and bent their knees.

"Then on the count of three, we begin the duel. There are a few simple rules to duelling. If anyone begins before the count of three, they are disqualified." Harry cast a quick look at Malfoy, who was looking at the Professors with a slight look of interest on his face.

"You are disqualified if you use any spells that are considered Dark, although I'm sure none of you are capable of casting any Dark spells as none are taught here at Hogwarts. Otherwise, all spells are allowed. No physical attacks are allowed, except for physically snatching your opponent's wand, in which case you win."

"Unforgivables are, well, unforgivable. Using one will not only get you disqualified from the duel, but you also get a comfy cell in Azkaban all to yourself," James said, while some students chuckled.

"There are several ways you can win; when your opponent is unconscious, you win. If you continue to attack them, then you can get disqualified. You win if your opponent is no longer capable of coherent thought or speech, as they are no longer able to cast spells. If your opponent's wand is in your hand, then you win."

"Oh, and of course, you must try to stay within the bounds," James pointed to the red line circling the platform.

"Now, Miss Bones, could you please count to three for us?" James asked Susan, who nodded nervously.

In a loud, clear voice, Susan counted, "one, two, THREE!"

Harry watched in awe as both James and Snape whipped out their wands with lightning speed. Snape was already on the move as he shot a disarming charm.

James blocked it with the spell Lockhart tried to teach them in the Duelling Club in second year, and Harry couldn't help but smile.

James had to dodge because Snape shot a stunner straight after the disarming charm. He then returned a tickling hex, while Snape shot a curse capable of making James lose his hair and feel it as though they were being plucked one by one. Harry had to wonder if that was a Dark spell, considering the pain the victim would be in.

The spell missed James by a hair, while James growled and threw a jinx to make Snape unaware of his surroundings.

The duel went on for a very long time, while both of them threw, reflected, dodged, and blocked spell after spell. Harry wondered how long the duel went on for before James sent up some sparks in the air to indicate that they should stop.

"As you can see from our duel," James said, slightly out of breath, "we each effectively shot spells at each other and either dodged or blocked the spells. I am aware that at this level, you are capable of quite a number of spells, and instead of teaching you new spells, these sessions will be very practical. We will choose random students to come up on the platform and duel, and Professor Snape and myself will then give you some sort of a critique on your performance. By doing this, we hope that you will learn from your fellow students also. Sometimes if there is a particular spell that we think is useful, we will divide you into pairs to practice it. Is there anyone willing to volunteer to go first?"

No-one raised their hand, and before James could choose someone, Snape stepped forward, and Harry was not surprised when he was called forth.

"How about Mr. Potter and… Mr. Longbottom?"

Harry nervously made his way to the platform with Neville by his side. Snape obviously wanted Neville to do something wrong, and for Harry to bear the consequences. Harry knew what he had to do; finish it off as quickly as possible.

The two of them faced each other nervously. Harry gave Neville a nervous grin, which was not returned as Neville looked like he was about to hyperventilate. They bowed to each other. James counted to three, and on the count of three, Harry speedily shot off a disarming spell.

"Expelliarmus!"

Neville was red in the face as he looked down shamefully. Snape stepped up to him and said, "that was an abysmal effort, Longbottom…"

James stepped in before Snape could continue, "very good Mr. Potter. Now Mr. Longbottom, I see that you are very nervous. There is nothing to be worried about," he leaned in and whispered in Neville's ear, "I will protect you from Professor Snape."

Neville giggled nervously, and James patted him on the shoulder, "now, Mr. Longbottom, if you are not a quick drawer with the wand, the best thing for you to do is to move; a moving target is harder than one that's standing still. Perhaps you'd like to try again?"

Neville gaped at James, but not wanting to disappoint the friendly teacher, he nodded.

"Okay, perhaps another student would like to have a go with Mr. Longbottom, what about Mr. Macmillan?"

"Ready? Don't forget to bow. Now, on the count of three… one, two, three!"

Ernie shot a jelly-legs jinx, while Neville successfully moved to the right and effectively dodged the jinx.

"Petrificus totalus!" Neville stammered.

Ernie blocked it with a shield, but the force of the spell made him step back. While Ernie looked down to see if he was out of the line, Neville shot another body bind, which hit it's mark.

"Well done, Mr. Longbottom! Well done, Mr. Macmillan! You dodged the first spell quite well. Mr. Macmillan, you need to move around on your feet a little more, although the shield was very good," James said.

"You shouldn't look at your feet while you duel, you can't see your opponent out of the top of your head…" Snape put in.

"Eye contact is very important in a duel. So keep your eyes locked on your opponent's!" James said, "any comments from students?"

Harry in fact had a comment, but wasn't sure if he should say it; he didn't want to stand out any more than he usually did. However, as soon as he decided that it would be for the benefit of the students if he commented, Malfoy had his hand up and said it for him.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Macmillan was aware that Longbottom would dodge. He should have shot another spell in the direction he thinks Longbottom would have gone," he said. Harry looked at him in surprise; he wasn't drawling in that annoying voice for once, he was talking normally.

"Very good, Mr. Malfoy. Ten points to Slytherin," James looked slightly pained giving points to Slytherin, but nobody seemed to notice. Snape sneered.

"Now, are there any volunteers? No volunteers? Well, how about Miss Bulstrode and Mr. Corner?"

The rest of the night continued in the same fashion, and by the end of it, half the students have had a go.

"Very well done, everyone! It's a pity not everyone can have a go. Those who did not have a go will get a chance next week. Now I'm sure your stomachs call to you, so this will be all for this week!"

Snape glided out of the room as soon as James finished talking. Ron's stomach grumbled, "he's not wrong when he says our stomachs are calling for us!" he said.

"Only boys think with their stomachs," Ginny said matter-of-factly.

Next to their group, they heard Crabbe and Goyle's stomachs rumble, and they all laughed.

AN: That's as good a place as any to stop the chapter, it's actually a little slow, next chapter should move quicker though. Next chapter: Halloween!

Now, there are some things I'm not too sure about. Is Blaise Zabini a male or female? I wasn't sure, so you might have noticed I didn't refer to Zabini as either a he or a she. If anyone knows the exact gender of this mysterious character, please let me know!

Also, as I am not too sure, was Harry born in 1980 or 1981?

As always, if you have any comments/critiques/suggestions (I'd rather no flames, but if you must, well, they'll be dealt with accordingly), please leave a review or write to , jaane!

ultrasoul


	19. Chapter 19

AN: Hi everyone! It's kind of late, but happy new year! Or perhaps, I should say, happy Chinese New Year! This chapter is FINALLY done! If you're still reading this, I thank you for your interest in my work, and apologise for making you all wait so long. This has taken so long because, unfortunately, real life has been hectic, and is definitely more important than fanfic, regardless of how much I love the fanfic world!

No time for individual review replies, but thank you to everyone who reviewed (and even those who don't, thank you for reading):

Daughter of Zorro, corinnetkn24, KMS Snape, Cynthia1850, PreciousLily, I-want-to-fly, NoAlias, phoebe666, kyla, Brenna8, Wytil, orlin, minty, FlameofShadows, SS2 Megami-sama, Cecilia Orechio, Desert Hacker, abbika-rose-writers, Helen Kiyonis, Samantha, Wren Truesong, sami1010220, Kim Kotchanski, rainbow fish, Kinky Usagi, Angel Horse, Pleione, Kateri1, LimaBean0501, crooskshanks87, Sasinak, Vyxagallanxchi, and Phoebs

I apologise if I missed your name. Thank you for those who answered my questions about Blaise's gender (male) and Harry's DOB (1980, although some of you weren't too sure if it was 1981). Answers to some comments and questions at the end. Now, on with the story!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and co. belong to JKR.

xxx

"I want you all to transfigure a rock into a worm, just as I did before. You may begin."

Hermione, as usual, got the transfiguration in the first few attempts, and then turned to help Ron and Harry with their attempts.

"This is supposed to be easy, boys. It's just a small object" Hermione was exclaiming.

"Did you guys notice anything different with Malfoy" Harry asked before Ron could start an argument.

Hermione demonstrated the wand movement again, then looked at Harry"well, he didn't insult Hagrid today in Care of Magical Creatures."

Ron snorted"the reality of the importance of passing OWLS finally made it through his thick skull, probably."

"You're not one to talk" Hermione said as Ron tried to unsuccessfully transfigure the rock"you haven't even looked at the new timetables I wrote up"

"Malfoy's been quiet lately, not all sneering and insulting as usual, I just wonder why. I mean, it's been a few weeks now since I've heard an insult from him" Harry said. Harry waved his wand and said the incantation, and he got a fat worm, not quite the right shape, but it was moving.

"You say that as though you like being insulted" Hermione sniffed"I think he's just becoming more mature, finally. It's about time he puts petty house rivalry aside."

McGonagall came up to the three of them and looked at Hermione's worm"well done Miss Granger, five points to Gryffindor" she then looked at Harry's moving blob, and Ron's stripy rock. "The pronunciation of the incantation must be accurate, and moreover, you must really want the rock to become a worm."

"Why would we really want that" Ron muttered as McGonagall went over to help Lavendar and Parvati.

"Tonight's homework is a three foot essay on the differences between

animated and non-animated transfiguration. You are to cover the different wand movements, incantations, and the difficulties associated with each type of transfiguration. Essays are due Thursday next week, and there will be a short test next Monday in the first half of the double. You are dismissed."

"I can't believe she's assigning homework and a test at the same time, and it's Halloween tomorrow" Ron complained.

"I don't think I can get it finished, what with Quidditch practice and the Duelling Club…" Harry moaned.

"And Prefect duties, I don't think I'll be getting any sleep" Ron whined, cramming his parchment and quill into his bag, and getting ink all over his fingers.

"Well, it's easy really. All you need to do is minus the wizard's chess time from your schedules, and you should be fine" Hermione said, packing her books neatly into her bag"or even better, we have a break now, so maybe we can begin work on it"

Harry considered protesting, but then thought that it was best to finish it off as soon as possible"fair enough" then he turned to Ron"and we can get it done during our History of Magic lessons too."

Ron nodded, not looking the least bit happy, and they made their way to the library to begin their essays.

xxx

Dear members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team,

9;To celebrate Halloween, Quidditch practice tonight is cancelled. We will do a make-up session another time that is still being decided. Happy Halloween!

Harry Potter

Harry had pinned the notice on the board one week earlier, after confirming Quidditch pitch reservations with Madam Hooch.

"Happy Halloween, Captain" Fred and George cheered as Harry came down the stairs to the Common Room.

"Ah, see there brother? Our current captain does know how to enjoy himself after all" Fred grinned.

"We were afraid you might become another Wood, but we've nothing to worry about" George patted Harry on the back.

"I only did it as you promised something good during our meals" Harry grinned at them.

"Ooh, perfect Potter likes our petty pranks" Fred grinned, while George pulled something out of his pocket, and looked around to make sure no-one was listening.

"As a token of our gratitude to you for your funding, we present you with a free sample of our Halloween Special Stink Bomb" George grabbed Harry's hand and placed a mini Jack-o-lantern in it.

"Uh, what's so special about it, apart from the fact that it's in the shape of a pumpkin head" Harry asked.

"Oh, perhaps you can test it out on some Slytherins if you want to see what's different about it" Fred said off-handedly. "We must be on our way, there is business to attend to" And the twins hurried off, leaving Harry standing there with the pumpkin head in his hand.

Harry grinned as he thought about who he should throw the bomb at, and made his way down the steps. There were bats flying around in the Entrance Hall, and pumpkin heads floating around. Even the armour down the corridors had been polished and had eerie music coming from them. Peeves was flying around as usual throwing unpleasant things such as bugs and water bombs at students, singing the Adamms Family song. He quickly made his way into the Great Hall and to the seat between Ron and Ginny, barely avoiding Peeves' large worm (hoping it wasn't a rock partway transfigured into a worm), and piled his plate with food.

"Attention, students" The students quietened and looked up to Dumbledore, who was standing and beaming at all of the students.

"To celebrate Halloween, I would like to announce that the Weird Sisters have agreed to perform for us tonight, so dinner will begin an hour earlier than usual…"

'Good thing I cancelled Quidditch practice' Harry thought.

"… so if you do not wish to miss out on the performance and dinner, please make sure you are here on time"

"Fred and George look very happy" Ginny commented, when everyone had calmed down a bit.

"They're always happy" Ron said around a mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"I think they've got a prank planned" Hermione frowned, placing the newspaper she was reading down on the table. She was about to stand up to lecture them about the school rules when the doors to the Great Hall opened and the bunch of bats swooped down upon the students. Students screamed everywhere as the bats landed in their food and on their heads. Harry had reacted quickly, along with half the other students, as they hid under the tables. Up at the staff table, James had quickly erected a shield around himself that stopped the bats getting to him, grinning at the mayhem around him. He saw half the other teachers had done the same. Hagrid had a look of pure happiness as he saw the beasts flying around the Great Hall, even petting one that had landed in his beard. Harry heard laughing and looked at Fred and George, who were pointing and laughing at something happening over at the Slytherin table; a bat had gotten into Pansy Parkinson's hair, and she was shrieking her head off trying to get it off.

"STUDENTS" Dumbledore's voice boomed. Harry noticed that the screaming stopped, and there were no more fluttering wings. "You may resume your breakfast." Harry could have sworn there was some amusement in that voice. Although the next voice that he heard held no amusement at all.

"Mr's Weasley and Weasley, come with me" McGonagall said sternly, and led them away from the table. They disappeared from the Great Hall. While all the students sighed in relief, the twins had equally satisfied grins plastered on their faces.

The students all crawled out from under the tables, and resumed breakfast.

"I think that was a bit mild for the twins" Harry remarked, repouring himself some pumpkin juice.

Ron scoffed"if you think that that's all, you don't know the twins as well as I thought you did."

Hermione just shook her head"when are they going to grow up"

xxx

The lessons that day were relatively easy; after the shock of the morning's ordeal, even the teachers seemed to enjoy all the decorations around the castle and the festive mood, except for Snape of course, who seemed glummer than usual among all the bright orange. Peeves had managed to paint the dungeons a bright orange, and Snape still hadn't managed to charm away the colour.

"Fifty points from anyone who comments on the change of décor" Snape had snarled the moment the class started.

Fred and George had both gotten a week's worth of detention, which was nothing to them after their years of detention experience. They hinted that there was more to come at dinner; Harry made a point to himself to sit near them so that whatever came, hopefully he wouldn't be too close to a victim.

And so it was with great excitement that all the students turned up early in the Great Hall. The Great Hall was decorated like every other Halloween; black and orange streamers, bats and Jack-o-Lanterns floating above them, and other Halloween decorations filled the walls from the ground to the enchanted ceiling. The Hogwarts ghosts and various others Harry had never seen before were floating around and chatting away to one another. Gone were the long House tables, replaced by dozens of round tables scattered around the hall. Each round table seated about ten. Early comers had already claimed half the tables. It looked like Slytherins were gathered near the back, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to seat themselves near the front. Not too near the front though; Harry still liked to keep his distance from Snape.

Harry shared a table with most of his Gryffindor year-mates, and also invited the twins and Lee Jordan to share their table. Ginny was seated a few tables over from them with some Ravenclaws who Harry recognised as several members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, including Cho Chang. Parvati and Lavender, who looked suspiciously like they were wearing make-up, and adorning dangly earrings and dangly necklaces around their necks, were with Padma and some other Ravenclaws. In fact, Harry then noticed that a lot of the girls had gotten a little more dressed up for the occasion, whereas the boys were still in the same clothes they were in that morning. He looked over to Hermione, and noticed that she had changed too, and had her hair pulled up into a neat ponytail. That was just strange.

There were flashes as Colin Creevey took photo after photo of decorations and people ("Smile, Harry") Harry tried not to look in Colin's direction as he took photos.

Lee had brought his tarantula, and let it crawl around on the table. Ron had escaped for the meantime, pretending to go to talk to his little sister. As a Prefect, Ron should have confiscated the animal, but his fear far outweighed his sense of authority. Harry didn't want to spoil the fun, but he did want Ron back at their table. Maybe he should tell Hermione, who was lecturing Neville about the Muggle Halloween celebrations, to see to the matter?

"So, what were you going to do tonight" Harry questioned the twins.

"Do you really think that we would spoil the surprise for you" George asked.

"Well…"

"You'll have to wait until the end of the night Captain" Fred said"we were going to carry out our plan before dinner, but decided we wanted to see the band perform a bit before we did anything."

Dinner began with soup as an entrée. Ron eventually made it back to their table after Hermione asked Lee non-too-nicely to get rid of the animal or face point deduction. The Weird Sisters played some ballads in the background as everyone ate their soup.

As they finished soup, the band played a more up-beat song while dinner was served. The dinner was comparable to any other Hogwarts special occasion feasts. Like all the other boys on his table, Harry piled his plate high and dug in.

Not for the first time that night, Harry felt as though someone was staring at his back, only to find no one was doing any such thing as soon as he turned around.

"Are you waiting for the twins' pranks" Ron asked.

"No, it just felt as though someone was staring at me" Harry said, scanning the Hall nervously.

"It's probably just your imagination. You might want to stop being so jumpy, you'll become a Moody one day! Can't have you hexing us when we least expect it" Ron laughed, while Harry forced a chuckle. He was sure someone had been staring at him from the back of the Hall; he had felt that tingling at the back of his neck as though a pair of eyes were boring into the back of his neck. He had no idea who it was, but of course, it could just be any other student staring at 'The Great' Harry Potter.

"I doubt it's his imagination. Tonight is such a fun night, and even Muggles know that some people can feel it when they are being stared at. Some people like to call it 'sixth sense', or 'instinct'" Hermione said, frowning at Harry.

"Although those 'instincts' could be wrong too. One time Dudley swore that a boy was staring at him and punched him, when the boy was doing no such thing." Harry said, then pondered"but then again, Dudley probably just didn't like the fact that the boy had gotten better results in our language class."

"Are you actually saying that Moody has some 'sixth sense' which enables him to hex random people when he is sufficiently surprised" Ron asked sceptically.

"Don't try to argue with the lady, Ronniekins" Fred said wisely, while Ron scowled at what he was called.

"We know from experience, you can never win in an argument with women" George agreed.

"Well, at least not when that woman's our mother…"

"Or our sister…"

"Or some hot-headed Gryffindor…"

"I am not hot-headed" Hermione shot at them. She noticed Neville cower back from her slightly, and tried her best to appear calm. Ron sniggered when he saw this, which earned him a glare.

Everyone enjoyed dinner and the entertainment immensely. Before the end of dinner, Harry felt someone staring at him again, but again didn't catch anyone staring at him when he turned around.

Assorted desserts appeared, and regardless of how full most of the students were, they all made an effort to fit that little bit more in. For the first time, Harry wondered what the House Elves did with the left over food.

As most people almost finished their desserts, Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement.

"Curfew tonight has been extended to midnight, for you to stay and enjoy the music and company. Happy Halloween everybody"

With a dramatic puff of smoke, the Weird Sisters began a rock song. As some people finished dessert, they got up and began dancing to the music. Fred and George went right up to the front of the stage and did some head-banging, although the song wasn't overly heavy.

Suddenly, the cutlery on the table seemed to come to life as they floated into the air and moved around, just out of reach of the students' hands. The flower decorations on the table began to cackle, while wisps of orange smoke came out of their petals. Students sitting leaning into the table got a whiff of the smoke, and began to laugh uncontrollably. Harry saw this and quickly made his way under the table, narrowly escaping the smoke. _'I should've gone to the dance floor with the twins'_ he thought to himself, while using a napkin to fan away any smoke, and hoping that he made the right decision by going under the table, his instincts telling him there was more to come.

At that moment, the doors to the Great Hall opened, and in floated a dozen large Jack-o-Lanterns, laughter coming out of the cut-out mouths. As the Jack-o-Lanterns hovered above the students, mini Jack-o-lanterns began spewing out of their mouths. Harry recognised them as the Special edition Stink Bombs.

There were screams, both of horror and laughter, as the bombs exploded. One exploded on the Hufflepuff table, and students choked on the smell, and their laughter made their choking worse. As the smoke cleared, Harry saw Justin with bright orange hair and mini pumpkin heads printed on his robes.

The Hall was then attacked by the mob of bats, making Harry felt like he had a sense of déjà vu. The staff were all trying to get rid of the bats and the pumpkins, and to uncharm the flowers and the cutlery, but Fred and George must have put some charm on them to avoid having them being vanished. Harry looked to them, and saw McGonagall dragging them out of the hall ("if you are interested in any of the items demonstrated tonight, please contact us…" Fred or George yelled as they were leaving). Harry then looked at the staff table to see if anyone was more orange than before. Most of the teachers had performed a shield charm, and out of the corner, Harry saw James aim his wand at Snape, creating a hole in the shield, allowing him to slip a mini pumpkin into Snape's shield. Harry tugged on Ron's sleeve and pointed up at Snape, and they both burst out laughing at Snape's surprise and expression of horror as he coughed from the stink and realised his beautiful black hair was now a bright orange. It looked like Snape made a good effort to keep his cool, while performing what looked like a complex spell to cleanse the orange from his hair. Not really cleansed, as Hermione pointed out that Snape must have done a spell to return the prank to whoever pulled it, and James ended up with the orange hair.

And to finish the night off, a bat the size of a helicopter swooped in with a banner that said:

Happy Halloween!

After five minutes of chaos, the teachers were able to get rid of all the pranks, the smokes and fumes vanished, a lot of 'priori incantatem's performed on the students countered the laughing, and the cutlery back in usable condition.

"I'm sorry about that" Dumbledore addressed the band, bowing his head.

"No problems, it is nice to see that your students have a good sense of humour" the lead singer of the Weird Sisters said. Luckily, that was all the pranks in store for them that night, although Harry heard some expressions of interest in the pranks.

Some students remained to get more autographs, while others returned to their seats to continue chatting while picking away at the remaining dessert (which had safely survived the stink bombs and bat attacks).

Harry returned to his seat with Ron and Hermione. Lee Jordan seemed to be leading Zacharius Smith outside, probably into a Weasley Twin prank in return for his rudeness during the Quidditch trials. Dean was sitting with some Hufflepuff's, discussing soccer with some other Muggleborns. Seamus was talking Quidditch with some Ravenclaws, and Harry blushed and looked away when his eyes met Cho's. Neville was still lined up for an autograph.

Harry and Hermione waited patiently while Ron stood in line behind Neville. Harry would have gone and kept Ron company, if he had not been afraid of being asked an autograph in return by the Weird Sisters.

Students started trickling out of the Hall as the night went on. Professor Plum came and chatted about defence with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Ten minutes before curfew, the trio made their way out of the Hall, talking about the days' events, and were at the door when they were interrupted by a loud scream. The Hall silenced, staff and students staring at each other in horror. Dumbledore stood up, a grim look on his face, and the remaining students suddenly moved as one towards the doors before the teachers could stop them.

The three Gryffindors had been closest to the door, and with a quick glance at each other, moved towards the sound of the terrified scream. Then there were cries as someone shrieked desperately for help.

Harry recognised the voice as he approached the source; it was Dennis Creevey, leaning over a body and screaming a single word.

"COLIN"

Harry stopped and stared at the scene; Colin was lying with his back on the floor, his right leg at an odd angle and eyes closed. There was what looked like a smashed pumpkin on his torso and covering his camera, pumpkin skin surrounding the area. But it was not the sight of a student on the floor with a twisted leg that stopped Harry in his tracks, it was what was floating above him.

"The Dark Mark" Hermione gasped, hand moving to her mouth.

"Oh no, there are Death Eaters here" Ron whimpered, just as everyone else arrived at the scene.

Harry looked around, eyes searching the corridors and the stairs, looking for a tall figure in black robes and a white mask. He didn't see any such figure, except…

He saw a blond-haired figure retreating from sight three floors up, eyes wide with fright.

Malfoy!

AN: That's a good place to stop this chapter. Again, sorry about the wait. To be honest, I finished this chapter a while ago, but then I rewrote it because I didn't like it, although I still don't like it. sigh

Also, when I went on my holiday, I left my plot line at home, so that slowed me down as well.

I've written three pages of the next chapter, but I'm not going to make any promises about when the next chapter is going to be up. Just know this: I have NOT abandoned this fic! As long as people are still reading, I am still writing!

Someone said that scene changes were confusing, and it seemed as though some of my were disappearing, because I _always_ put them between scenes, so I'm trying xxx instead for now.

Kim Kotchanski, you reviewed twice! But I laughed so much when I read your first review: '_I think I'm the Simon Cowell of the literary world, little/no talent myself but feels free to judge everyone else.'_ Thanks for that!

Now, to answer some questions and comments:_Pairings?_ Well, I think I mentioned before that romance isn't central to this fic. If I do do some pairings, it'd be Hermione/Ron, and probably Harry/Ginny.

_I bet Draco is pretty upset about his mum, right? I would be too. Did Remus and Sirius take Lucius' wand away from him?_ Yes, he has been acting somewhat strangely because of his mother. This Malfoy is perhaps quieter and more thoughtful than before, and this period could be the turning point for Malfoy: good or evil? And better safe than sorry, so yes, they took Lucius' wand away from him, and Snape keeps it, in case Voldemort sees the fake Malfoy using a different wand (in other stories, people seem to recognise wands, and I'm assuming Voldemort has a good memory for things that relate to other people's magic). The prison really just denies people using wandless magic.What was up with Harry's mirror? I forgot what it's supposed to do. I guess that will be featured more prominently later, maybe? I realise that most of you would have forgotten what happened a lot of chapters ago! Harry's mirror was a foe glass, a birthday gift from Sirius and Lupin. It heats up when enemies are in a 1km radius, and you can see the whites of their eyes if they are in a 10m radius. And yes, it will be featured at least once more in this story! Now, other presents he got that will be featured are:

Hagrid's amulet, which protects the wearer. It obviously won't be able to protect you from the Killing Curse, but it can protect you from minor curses.

James and Lily's communicating stone, which he uses to communicate regularly with the other world.

_Could you continue to go light on Severus? I don't see him as evil at all. I think he's just a product of his childhood. He seems lonely and bitter. _Don't worry, I had intended to write more pranks, but as I've been spending less time on this fic than I used to, and pranks isn't really necessary to advance the plot, the Marauders won't be too mean to Snape. And I agree that Snape is just a bitter man. And Vyxagallanxchi, you didn't sound pushy at all:)

_Out of curiosity, are you planing anything for Luna in this story?_ Not particularly, but she's such a quirky character I might have to make something up for her!

_you should write other things.. i don't doubt you'd be published.. good luck on exams and stuff..!_ Thank you for your encouragement. I passed all of my exams! Woohoo! But now it's only three months until my next lot of exams:( . About writing other things, I have an idea in my head for an original fantasy, and I've written out most of the plot, so that should be in the works one day in the future (after I finish this darned degree!), and I'd like to write several biographies, not about myself of course, my own biography would be about five pages max! I'd LOVE to get published, but if I don't, I did what I love, and that's what counts.

_You must remember 'YOU' are the Omnipotent Author and if you want to step out of 'CANON' just go right ahead afterall it is YOUR story._ Lol, true! But seeing as I'm basing it on JKR's creations, I thought I'd keep some things the same.

_Duelling club's great. But, with Snape again. They never get away from him do they?_ No, they don't! Firstly, I intended oSnape to use up one of his favours (a lot of chapters back, oSnape only agreed to help in this world if James, Sirius, and Remus agree to a favour each) in the duelling club, but I've changed my mind about that. I know EXACTLY what favours oSnape is going to ask. But oSnape just stayed in the duelling club because I thought it'd be amusing.

I make no promises as to when the next chappie will be up, but HOPEFULLY it won't take as long as before. MARK YOUR DIARIES EVERYONE! BOOK 6 IS COMING JULY 16TH OR SOMETIME THEREABOUTS! WOOHOO!

As always, if you have any criticisms, comments, or suggestions, please leave a review or write to tonderumushi _at_ yahoo _dot_ com _dot_ au.Seeya!

ultrasoul


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